The Washington Examiner’s Byron York discussed how a Republican member of Congress not being eyed for House speaker could win out if the GOP vote gets divided between two established candidates.
York discussed the likely successors to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Fox News’s America Reports after Tuesday’s historic vote to oust the California Republican from the speakership. He mentioned House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who have already announced their candidacies.
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“Steve Scalise has a lot of goodwill among Republicans just because of the way he is. He’s a nice man, and I think they all like him. Of course, he was grievously wounded in the baseball game practice shooting, and now, he actually announced that he has had cancer. I think his treatment is going well and he’s at work. So, I think he’s very, very popular,” York said.
“On the other hand, Jim Jordan has also announced. He’s a powerful figure in the House. As a former champion wrestler, he is aggressive. I’m not sure I would want to run against Jim Jordan at anything,” he added.
York also said that there could be a scenario in which two candidates divide the Republican conference and a name not being discussed for House speaker emerges as a consensus pick.
“So, you could have a situation where there’s a bunch of other names. I think we put 13 pictures on the screen just a moment ago. There’s a bunch of other names here. You could have [a] situation where two candidates go at each other and split the vote, and it ends up with everybody says, ‘Well, we can’t give it to Scalise. We can’t give it to Jordan. Pick somebody else, and maybe somebody you had not thought of,'” York said.
When asked about House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) being that alternative pick, he said that Emmer would “clearly be the third choice here.”
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McCarthy was ousted on Tuesday in a 216-210 vote, which saw eight Republicans join all Democrats in removing the California Republican from the speakership. Hours after his ouster, McCarthy announced that he would not seek the speakership again, setting up a battle in the House Republican conference to be his successor.
Scalise and Jordan have both announced runs for House speaker, with other Republicans in the conference considering taking up the speaker’s gavel. A candidate forum is scheduled to be held on Oct. 10 for the House GOP, with a House floor vote on the new speaker planned for Oct. 11.
