According to a report from The New York Post, the GOP has nominated Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise to be the next Speaker of the House. It is not yet known if he will have enough votes to grab the gavel.
From The New York Post:
Scalise (R-La.) edged out House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) 113-99 in the closed-door balloting, a vote that exposed still-raw feelings in the GOP conference following last week’s ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
“There was a vote,” said a visibly annoyed Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a supporter of Jordan, “and there was someone who won.”
Before picking Scalise, Republicans defeated a proposed rule change that would have raised the threshold to be the party’s speaker nominee to 217, an outright majority of all current members of Congress.
This story is developing…
Republicans tap Steve Scalise as pick for next House speaker https://t.co/RPZ7wBEqs6 pic.twitter.com/S2RXgZmXEP
— New York Post (@nypost) October 11, 2023
If he does win the Speakership, Scalise says Israel will be first priority.
“I’m looking forward to going in there,” Scalise said ahead of the Republican conference meeting. “Obviously we have a very important vote. It’s really, really important that this Congress get back to work, we select a speaker, go to the House floor, get to 218 and then get the House working again.
“The first order of business under Speaker Steve Scalise is going to be bringing a strong resolution expressing support for Israel,” he continued. “We’ve got a very bipartisan bill — the McCaul-Meeks resolution — ready to go right away to express our support for Israel. We’ve got to get back to work — today we’re going to do that.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) spoke to reporters about his candidacy for new speaker ahead of the GOP Conference meeting. He continued to share that his first order of business under his potential speakership is a bipartisan resolution in support for Israel. pic.twitter.com/c7Vn6qzlwV
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 11, 2023
