By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Steve Scalise, the Republican nominee to lead the U.S. House of Representatives, faced a test on Thursday of whether he could gain enough support from his splintered party conference to be elected speaker on the chamber floor.
A day after he bested House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan for the nomination in a secret party ballot, the Louisiana Republican had not yet proven whether he could muster the 217 Republican votes needed to overcome Democratic opposition and be elected to the role second in line to the presidency, after the vice president.
“When we go to the floor, there’ll be at least a relatively high expectation on the part of Steve Scalise and his team that he’s got the votes,” said Representative John Duarte, a Scalise supporter.
Republican leaders initially scheduled a House meeting for Wednesday afternoon, should Scalise, now the No. 2 House Republican, quickly come up with the votes for election. But no vote was held.
The inability of the House to act on legislation without a speaker added a sense of urgency, as Republicans faced pressure to act in support of Israel’s war against Palestinian militants of Hamas and restart government funding legislation while Congress neared a new shutdown deadline on Nov. 17.
Jordan planned to vote for Scalise and encouraged his fellow Republicans to do the same, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
But a mood of uncertainly hung over the House more than a week after eight Republicans ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the job with the help of Democrats, with some lawmakers still publicly backing Jordan and others vowing to vote for McCarthy.
While McCarthy was the first speaker to be removed in a formal vote, the last two Republicans to hold the job wound up leaving under pressure from party hardliners.
“Clearly, this does not look good for the House or for the country,” Representative Dusty Johnson, a Republican, told reporters. “We have incredibly tight margins, and frankly, some members who have a hard time getting to ‘yes’ on almost anything.”
MEMORIES OF JANUARY
Republicans are determined to avoid a recurrence of the embarrassing public spectacle that occurred in January, when hardline conservatives forced McCarthy to endure 15 floor votes over four days before winning the gavel.
But that concern appeared to do little to drive unity behind closed doors, with more than a dozen lawmakers either undecided or opposed to Scalise.
Asked how long it could take to fill the speaker vacancy, Representative Richard Hudson, who chairs the House Republican campaign arm, told reporters: “No idea.”.
Scalise, 58, gained near legendary status within Republican circles by surviving a severe gunshot wound after a gunman opened fire during practice for a charity baseball game in 2017. He also commands widespread respect as a veteran legislator, who has spent years in party leadership positions.
But Scalise also faces new health concerns as he undergoes treatment for multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, which some Jordan supporters cited as a reason not to vote for him.
“I like Steve Scalise, and I like him so much that I want to see him defeat cancer more than sacrifice his health in the most difficult position in Congress,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who backs Jordan, said on the social platform “X”.
Jordan was endorsed by former President Donald Trump and appeared to be the favorite of populist minded hardliners.
Before his nomination, Scalise and his allies worked to defeat a closed-door effort to require a candidate to win 217 Republican votes to become the nominee. His success at defeating the move made some Jordan supporters unhappy.
(Reporting by David Morgan; additional reporting by Moira Warburton and Makini Brice; Editing by Scott Malone and Grant McCool)
