Steve Scalise drops House speaker bid. What happens next?

Scalise, above, acknowledged late Thursday that he did not have the votes to win the gavel

(Image credit: Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call Inc via Getty Images)

published 13 October 2023

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), chosen as the speaker-designee by his House Republican conference on Wednesday, ended his bid for the top spot late Thursday, acknowledging he did not have the 217 votes to win the gavel. The House has been without a speaker and unable to conduct business since a group of GOP hardliners forced the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) nine days ago.

Scalise had spent the past 36 hours "working furiously to secure the votes" from GOP colleagues who backed rival speaker candidate Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in Wednesday's 113-99 internal Republican ballot, The Associated Press reported. But after hours of closed-door meetings on Thursday, it became clear the numbers just didn't line up for Scalise.

Scalise did not endorse another candidate. Asked if he would support Jordan, he said the speaker shouldn't be someone "doing it for themselves and their own personal interests."

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Scalise's surprise exit from the race left the "House leaderless and the GOP in chaos," publicly "trading recriminations about the disarray in which they found themselves," The New York Times reported. "They planned a Friday morning meeting to discuss how to move forward." Many Republicans openly pondered "whether their fractured conference is capable of electing anyone as speaker," The Washington Post added.

"We should just have a lottery. If you lose, you have to be speaker," Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) quipped on X, formerly Twitter.

Jordan, the candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump, also doesn't appear to have enough support to win the speaker's gavel. McCarthy is widely seen as unlikely to stage a successful comeback, and no other Republican has emerged as a viable Plan D, though Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) is broadly liked across the caucus, the Post reported. Congressional parliamentarians agree that empowering unelected Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) to conduct any legislative business other than electing a new speaker — funding the government to avert a shutdown in November, for example, or approving emergency aid for Israel — would require a contentious vote of the full House.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.