House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Rep. Jim Jordan both jumped into the race Wednesday to become the next House speaker, setting up a fight to replace Kevin McCarthy after his historic ouster.
House Republicans are even more bitterly divided in the aftermath of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster and his decision not to run again. It remains to be seen whether the conference can coalesce around a viable successor to the California Republican.
The stakes are extremely high as Congress faces down a looming shutdown deadline in mid-November. The House is essentially paralyzed while it lacks a speaker.
Republicans hold a slim majority, so it would only take a few flips to elect Jeffries as speaker. Whether any republicans are upset enough to flip is anyone’s guess.
If any Republicans want to talk it doesn’t absolutely have to be Jeffries. He is the Democrats first choice but they are the minority party and may be willing to give a little for a coalition that elects a Democrat as speaker.
Given the chaos of getting mccarthy appointed, and the likelihood that no speaker will make concessions to the freedom caucus after what just happened, I’m actually kinda pulling for a few flips. Probably won’t happen, but after another 15 votes who knows?
I mean, things are in such disarray, Dem’s might be able to slip AOC through in the confusion.