While the Senate is in recess today, House Republicans just nominated Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) to be the next Speaker, sending his candidacy to the House floor following former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-California) stunning ouster last week. Scalise secured the nomination 113-99 in a closed-door GOP conference meeting, defeating House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in a close race that did not have a clear front-runner heading into the internal vote this morning. Scalise will now take his candidacy to the House floor, where he will be up against House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), who Democrats nominated for Speaker on Tuesday night. The floor fight could get messy and Scalise will need the support of a majority of the chamber to take control of the gavel with Republicans holding a razor-thin majority. To win the gavel, a candidate needs support from a majority of the House members present, meaning the eventual speaker will need 217 votes if every one of the current members votes and does so for a candidate by name (not voting present). There are currently 433 members, with two vacancies, so a majority is 217. Many members who backed Jordan during the conference meeting remain noncommittal on whether they’ll now back Scalise on the House floor. The earliest such a vote before the full House could take place is 3 P.M. today because the House adjourned on Tuesday until that time. Scalise told reporters Wednesday morning that his first item of business as speaker would be to pass a bipartisan resolution expressing U.S. solidarity with Israel in the wake of devastating terrorist attacks by Hamas that have killed at least 1,200 people and 14 Americans.
