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Republicans on Capitol Hill began searching for a new leader on Wednesday, a day after members of the hardline party staged a historic insurrection that ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and plunged Washington into chaos.
Jim Jordan, a founding member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus and a loyal ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump, is the first Republican congressman to enter the race to succeed McCarthy. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, D-Louisiana, followed later Wednesday.
The election of the next speaker is not expected to take place until next week. But the race could once again expose a deepening civil war within the Republican Party as lawmakers grapple with an increasingly powerful far right and the long shadow cast by Trump.
In a letter asking for support from colleagues, Jordan said Congress is at “a critical crossroads in our nation’s history.” The Ohio congressman added that now is “the time for our Republican conference to come together and deliver on our promise to the American people.”
Scalise, a staunch supporter of Republican House leadership who until this week was McCarthy’s No. 2, has broad support from the Republican conference. In August, he revealed he was undergoing treatment for blood cancer.
Scalise became a household name in 2017 after he was shot and seriously injured by a left-wing activist at a congressional baseball game. He later fully recovered from his injuries.
Scalise referenced the shooting in a letter to colleagues Wednesday announcing his candidacy for speaker, calling on the party to “mend the deep wounds that exist within our conference and focus on our goals so that we can get back to work.” ”.
Oklahoma congressman Kevin Hearn, the leader of the influential Republican Study Committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday that he was also considering a run for speaker.
Some hardline Republican House members, including Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, have suggested that Trump, the current front-runner for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, should enter the race.
But it’s unclear whether the former president wants the job or if he’s qualified.
The U.S. Constitution does not require that the Speaker (second in the line of presidential succession after the Vice President) must be an elected member of Congress. But every speaker in American history has come from within the House of Representatives.
Trump, who was facing a civil fraud trial in a New York court on Wednesday, told reporters that “a lot of people” are asking him to run for speaker but said his “focus” is “totally” on running for president.
“If I can help them in the process, I will,” Trump added. “But we have some good people in the Republican Party who would do a great job as speaker.”
The wrangling underscores deep divisions within the Republican Party, where infighting has exacerbated dysfunction in Washington, with members of the right-wing party last week threatening to withhold federal funding.
It also foreshadows a potentially messy battle over the speaker’s gavel, which comes just as Congress is divided over the White House’s demands for increased funding for Ukraine and its strategy for dealing with immigration.
According to the House’s guiding rules, the lower house of Congress cannot deal with any legislative business until a new speaker is elected.
McCarthy was ousted as speaker in a historic vote on Tuesday afternoon after Matt Gaetz, the firebrand congressman from Florida, led an insurrection against the speaker who worked with Democrats over the weekend to avoid government Efforts to close the doors have raised objections.
McCarthy made it clear at a press conference after his dismissal that he would not run for speaker again. He has yet to endorse a successor.
But McCarthy also warned that Congress was facing “real institutional problems” and that members of his own party were no longer focused on governing.
McCarthy added that Gaetz and others “have no right” to call themselves conservatives. “They can’t say they’re conservative because they’re angry and confused. That’s not my party.”
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