WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday are holding closed-door votes as they try to pick a new speaker, with six members of the caucus seeking the role.
Here are the current candidates seeking to take the job that has been vacant since Oct. 3, bringing all legislative action in the House to a halt:
IN: TOM EMMER
Emmer, the House’s No. 3 Republican and chief vote counter, has won the endorsement of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whose ouster by hardline party members set off the current crisis. A former ice hockey coach from Minnesota, Emmer said in a social media post on Saturday that he was running “to bring our conference together and get back to work.”
IN: BYRON DONALDS
Donalds, a Republican from Florida and member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, announced his candidacy in a statement late on Friday. During the votes last week on Jordan’s speaker bid, two members backed Donalds on the House floor, although he was not an announced candidate. He also netted as many as 20 votes on the House floor in January during McCarthy’s bruising attempt to secure the gavel.
IN: AUSTIN SCOTT
Scott, a Georgia lawmaker who has kept a relatively low profile in his 12 years in Congress, also launched his candidacy on Friday. He challenged Jordan for the nomination last week in a protest against the Ohio Republican, but failed in a 124-81 vote
IN: KEVIN HERN
Hern, from Oklahoma and chairman of the influential conservative Republican Study Committee, kicked off his run for speaker minutes after Jordan said he had dropped out of the race. Hern garnered as many as seven votes on the House floor during the speaker election in January.
IN: MIKE JOHNSON
Johnson, a conservative constitutional law attorney from Louisiana, has been a member since 2017. He said in a letter to colleagues on Saturday that he was running as a consensus candidate and billed himself as a “team player and a bridge-builder.”
IN: JACK BERGMAN
Bergman, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general who has been in Congress since 2017, said on Friday his “hat is in the ring.” He is from Michigan.
OUT: PETE SESSIONS
Sessions was one of the more experienced candidates, having chaired the powerful House Rules Committee and headed the House Republican’s campaign arm. He was eliminated in the first round of voting on Tuesday.
OUT: GARY PALMER
Palmer, an outspoken defender of former President Donald Trump, was elected to Congress in 2014. The chair of the House Republican Policy Committee, whose goal is to unite congressional Republicans, said on social media on Tuesday that he was ending his campaign for the speakership.
OUT: DAN MEUSER
Meuser, who is from Pennsylvania and has been in the House for four years, had declared his candidacy but dropped out late Monday, telling colleagues: “People are angry, people are frustrated, people are blaming us for the dysfunction, and they are kind of right. So we need to respond. We need to get this done.”
(Compiled by Katharine Jackson, David Morgan, Diane Bartz, Andy Sullivan, Makini Brice, Moira Warburton and David Ljunggren; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell, David Gregorio and Jonathan Oatis)
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