House GOP hears from 8 candidates hoping to break Speaker stalemate: recap

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) told reporters on Monday that if he wins the GOP nomination for Speaker, he will not take his candidacy to the House floor unless he has 217 votes within the conference.

If all members are present and vote for a specific candidate, the winner will need 217 votes to clinch the gavel on the House floor.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who was the conference’s nominee last week before members voted to drop him following three failed votes, was unable to secure enough support on the House floor to win the gavel. And the nominee before that, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), dropped out of the race before bringing his candidacy to the floor amid opposition from Jordan supporters.

“I was very clear with my colleagues, you got to have 217 in the room, that’s what we need to do at this point, and then we’re gonna move forward,” Donalds said.

Pressed on if he will not take his candidacy to the floor without 217 votes, Donalds responded: “That’s correct, you gotta have it in the room.”

— Mychael Schnell

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), the vice chairman of the House GOP conference, predicted that the group is “probably gonna go a number of rounds” during its internal election to nominate a Speaker candidate.

“It may be a long day,” Johnson told reporters following Monday night’s candidate forum.

“I think it’s a healthy process and I think everybody has a great attitude about it,” he continued. “I really am optimistic about where we are.”

Asked if the House will have a Speaker by Tuesday night, Johnson responded: “Oh I think we’ve committed to that, I think everybody did, and I hope we can get it done.”

The Louisiana Republican said Tuesday’s nomination is “gonna be a tough decision for the conference because we have great candidates and it’s an embarrassment of riches in there.”

— Mychael Schnell

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said he will have “some last-minute follows-ups” ahead of Tuesday’s internal election to nominate a Speaker.

“I feel good,” Donalds said emerging from Monday night’s candidate forum. “You know me, I’m always confident. I feel good. But it’s up to the members, it’s in their hands now.”

“We’re gonna do some last-minute follow-ups with some people, but that’s what we’re gonna do,” he added.

Asked if he thinks he has the majority support of the GOP conference right now — which is needed to win the internal nominating contest — Donalds said “I don’t think anybody has that now.”

“I think we’re gonna have to work to that,” he said. “And that’s gonna be my focus over the next 24 hours or so.”

The Florida Republican said “it’s possible” that the House could have a Speaker by Tuesday night.

— Mychael Schnell

Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general and a fourth-term lawmaker, said he told GOP members Monday night that he will only run for one term as Speaker.

“I thought it was the right thing to do,” he told reporters when asked if he committed to only running one term as Speaker.

“We don’t run for military for life,” he continued. “You know, we take each battle, we go forward and we’re not a commanding officer for life. You rotate through. And I believe the right thing for the American people but for this House, is to have a Speaker who can stabilize and move forward in 437 or so days, because in that timeframe, it will be the 119th Congress.”

— Lauren Sforza and Mychael Schnell

Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) said that all eight candidates for Speaker committed to not bring an omnibus spending bill to the House floor — renewing a commitment from former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

— Emily Brooks

Emmer came out of the candidate forum saying things had gone well.

“I thought it was great conversation. I love, the members were all involved, my colleagues that are all running. It was great,” he said.

Asked why he’s the best person to lead the conference, Emmer responded, “I’ve made my case. We’ll see what the numbers say tomorrow.”

— Emily Brooks

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) said he thought the chances of electing a Speaker this week are “slightly better than 50-50.”

“The morale of the room seems higher. The hope that we do it this week seems higher than previous weeks. There seems to be some sense of compromise in the room. A little less insistence it has to be their personal win. Those are positive signs,” he said outside the candidate forum.

LaLota also said he and the New York delegation want accommodations on SALT deductions, as well as promises to keep the government open while securing the border, and vows to fund the National Flood Insurance Program and the World Trade Center Health Program.

— Emily Brooks

Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) said that other commitments and getting into the Speaker’s race late pushed him to withdraw from the crowded field.

“Well, a couple of reasons. One, I made some commitments actually to President Trump to help lead his campaign in Pennsylvania. That was reason number one. Reason number two, I just got in late. And we had some other great candidates. And I’m just about making the Speaker’s office be as effective as possible,” he told reporters Monday when asked why he dropped out.

He also said that he hasn’t “officially decided” who of the eight other candidates he will support for the Speakership.

When asked if helping out with former President Trump’s campaign in Pennsylvania was part of a deal to make him drop out of the race, he said it was not.

“And I committed to President Trump previously months back, and I just think that that’s pretty important. If the House is gonna be in good hands with one of those members that are up there now, I’m satisfied with that, particularly that I will have some input related to how to create some structural reforms to the Speaker’s House,” he said.

— Lauren Sforza and Mychael Schnell

ICYMI: Staff members bring in food before Republicans meet to decide who to nominate to be the new House speaker.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) told members that he is withdrawing from the Speaker’s race, Rep. Troy Nehls told reporters.

House Republicans are now hearing from the nine declared Speaker candidates in a closed-door forum.

Each candidate can make an opening statement; then the conference will have an hour and a half of Q&A; and each candidate will then make a one-minute closing speech.

— Emily Brooks

Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) said he and fellow members of the New York GOP delegation have been meeting with Speaker candidates ahead of Tuesday’s internal election.

A number of the New York Republicans hail from districts President Biden won in 2020. And a handful of them opposed Jordan’s Speaker bid last week, making them a key voting bloc in the ongoing race.

Molinaro said the conversations have been organized by House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), and the group has spoken with eight of the nine candidates this far.

“To her credit, Elise has organized us, we’ve been conducting our calls and interviews with all the candidates,” Molinaro told reporters heading into Monday’s candidate forum. “In fact, [we] completed all but I think one today.”

“And so we might not be voting all the same way, but we’re listening together and we intend, at least, to talk with one another before making any other action,” he added.

— Mychael Schnell

Speaker candidate Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) has released a list of five “Palmer Principles,” which he says are “are commonsense ideas that will bring stability to the House of Representatives.”

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who opposed Jordan’s Speakership bid last week, said he told a candidate he plans to support them this week — but would not reveal who that individual is.

“I told somebody I’m supporting them,” Bacon said.

“I’m here to be nice to everybody,” he said when asked who he is backing. “I got my meanness out last week.”

— Mychael Schnell

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) walked into the House GOP conference meeting wearing a campaign-branded long-sleeve quarter-zip.

Asked who he is supporting for Speaker, Jordan said: “I’m for the Republican.”

— Emily Brooks

All nine Speaker candidates have signed a pledge that they would back whoever the conference nominates.

The pledge was being circulated by Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) in a bid to avoid a repeat of the first two nominees’ fates.

Candidates would pledge to “support the Speaker Designate duly elected by the House Republican Conference—regardless of who that candidate is—when their election proceeds to the House Floor” and “pledge to vote for the Speaker Designate on the House Floor for as long as they remain the Speaker Designate.”

— Emily Brooks

President Biden and McCarthy reached a debt ceiling agreement at the end of last May, just days ahead of what would’ve been an unprecedented default on the federal government’s debt. 

The House went on to pass the bipartisan bill to raise the debt ceiling in a bipartisan 314-117 vote. The Senate later approved the bill and Biden signed the deal just two days before the potential default.

A total of 71 Republicans voted against the debt ceiling suspension, including five of the current Speaker candidates.

Here’s how they voted on the debt ceiling deal: 

• Emmer voted YES 
• Johnson voted YES 
• Bergman voted YES 
• Austin Scott voted YES 
• Hern voted NO 
• Donalds voted NO 
• Sessions voted NO 
• Meuser voted NO
• Palmer voted NO 

Read more about where they stood on key votes here.

— Miranda Nazzaro

Former President Trump spoke to several of the nine candidates for Speaker in recent days ahead of the House GOP’s internal election to nominate a third candidate for the gavel.

Trump’s conversations with Speaker candidates included House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Reps. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), Pete Sessions (R-Texas), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), and Mike Johnson (R-La.), according to sources who spoke to The Hill and candidates confirming the conversations publicly.

But speaking to reporters from New Hampshire on Monday, Trump did not appear poised to make an endorsement in the race as nine candidates seek to be the party’s nominee.

“We’re looking at a lot of people. And you know, I’m sort of trying to stay out of that as much as possible,” Trump said.

It is Trump’s conversation with Emmer, though, that has caught more attention after allies of the former president criticized the member of House GOP leadership.

READ MORE HERE.

— Emily Brooks

Democrats on the House Select Committee on China sent a letter Monday to intelligence officials asking for a classified briefing on the harmful effects that the “current political dysfunction” in the House is having on the world stage. 

In the letter, addressed to Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines and CIA Director William Burns, the 11 House Democrats wrote that they were “deeply concerned” that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other foreign adversaries were taking advantage of the fraught political moment. 

“We are deeply concerned that the CCP and other foreign adversaries of the United States are working to capitalize on our vacant Speaker position in the U.S. House of Representatives and constant threat of government shutdowns to discredit democracy globally and promote authoritarian governance models abroad,” they wrote in the letter, obtained by NBC News.

“We respectfully request a classified briefing from the U.S. Intelligence Community (‘IC’) on how the CCP and our foreign adversaries are leveraging current political dysfunction in the U.S. House of Representatives,” they wrote. 

— Sarah Fortinsky

Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) sent his colleagues a letter ahead of tonight’s Speaker candidate forum outlining some of his priorities.

“If we want to deliver better outcomes, we need to pursue a fresh approach. But the truth is Congress has not been working properly for a long time. Here are some facts,” he wrote, before listing stats about CRs, debt, immigration and the budget.

“We need a Speaker who can listen more than they talk. That’s why over the past week, I have called, texted, or met in person with every single Member of the Republican conference to hear about their priorities,” he wrote.

Slightly more than 2 in 3 respondents in a new survey said the House should elect a Speaker as soon as possible as the lower chamber approaches nearly three weeks without one amidst intense GOP division.

The USA Today/Suffolk University poll found 67 percent of those surveyed said the House should elect a Speaker as soon as possible. Meanwhile, a quarter of respondents said they do not care whether a Speaker is elected, saying the situation curbs congressional spending of taxpayer money, USA Today reported.

The push to elect a Speaker soon was observed across party lines, with 86 percent of Democrats, 57 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of independents supporting the election of a Speaker as soon as possible.

— Miranda Nazzaro

Hours after a mob of rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, 139 House Republicans voted to object to the election results in either Arizona, Pennsylvania or both. The vote to overturn Arizona’s election results failed 121-303 and the vote to overturn Pennsylvania’s results failed 138-282.

Click here to see how each Speaker candidate voted.

— Lauren Sforza

The hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus released an official position on Monday calling for Republican leadership to keep the House in Washington until a new Speaker is elected.

“It serves only the lobbyists of the swamp and defenders of the status quo to continue to drag out this process,” the group said in a statement. “The Speaker Pro Tempore and Republican leadership must keep Republicans in Washington as long as it takes and proceed with electing the new Speaker of the House without delay.”

— Emily Brooks

Republican senators say their party’s brand is suffering serious damage because of the failure of House Republicans to elect a new Speaker after nearly three weeks and warn that the GOP’s image will take a major hit if Congress can’t move on must-pass legislation soon. 

Senate Republicans have spoken hopefully of working with each of the candidates to replace former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on a long or intermediate term basis — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) — only to have their hopes of a resolution dashed each time.  

They say the “embarrassment” in the House could tarnish the GOP’s brand heading into the 2024 election, so that the party not only loses its majority in that chamber but fails to pick up White House and Senate as well.  

“My message to fellow Republicans is people elect us to lead, and they’re not leading right now,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who called the ouster of McCarthy and the subsequent failures to muster 217 votes for a successor an “embarrassment.” 

READ MORE HERE.

— Alexander Bolton

Some House Republicans are concerned a key spending promise made by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) could be on the skids as a thorny GOP battle to elect his successor drags into its third week. 

Republican fears are swirling that Congress could be on the path to jamming through another trillion-dollar omnibus spending package in the months ahead amid stalled progress in both chambers to pass all 12 annual government funding bills.

“I think we are and that’s awful. All an omnibus does is puts a lump sum of money, that the taxpayers have no idea where it’s going,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told The Hill this week, calling the idea “not right for anybody.”

When Republicans reclaimed the House majority, they criticized the passage of a $1.7 trillion omnibus as bad governance and excessive spending.

“One thing you gotta know on principle too: we’re not taking up an omnibus,” McCarthy said earlier this year. “It’s not going to happen. We gotta get back to doing the work that the American people expect us to do.”

But as the party works to unify behind a new leader in wake of McCarthy’s ouster, some worry the prospects of another omnibus bill are rising.

READ MORE HERE.

— Aris Folley

After two failed nominees, the floodgates have opened, with potential successors to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) jockeying for the role.

Nine Republicans officially filed to run for Speaker by the noon Sunday deadline, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) announced:

• House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.)
• Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.)
• House Republican Conference Vice Chairman Mike Johnson (R-La.)
• Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.)
• Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.)
• Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.)
• Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas)
• Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.)
• Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.)

READ MORE ABOUT EACH OF THEM HERE.

— Emily Brooks and Mychael Schnell

House Republicans will embark on their third attempt to break the Speaker stalemate this week, heading back to square one as they huddle to pick a nominee for the top spot — and hope that their new candidate can muster enough support to win the gavel on the floor.

The conference reset comes after a majority of members voted to drop House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as their nominee after he failed to win the Speakership on three ballots, and bled support on each consecutive vote. Before that, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) withdrew his name from the race as Jordan backers said they would not support him on the floor.

Now, nine Republicans are vying for the top spot. But it remains unclear if any of the candidates will be able to drum up the votes to secure the gavel on the House floor.

READ MORE ABOUT WHAT TO EXPECT THIS WEEK HERE.

— Mycheal Schnell