WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Tuesday elected Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the No. 3 in the party, as their speaker nominee after five rounds of ballots that pointed to a precarious path forward.
The internal party election came after Republicans cast aside Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the second party nominee for speaker, who was unable to win the majority of votes needed to be elected to the top job.
Emmer, 62, of Delano, Minn., has served since January as the party’s whip, responsible for counting and securing the votes to pass the speaker’s agenda. He was the highest-ranking Republican in the race and has been endorsed by ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
A mainstream conservative who voted to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory and supported a stopgap spending bill last month to avert a shutdown, Emmer has pitched himself as a unity candidate. Several hard-right conservatives, including a handful who voted to oust McCarthy, have signaled their support for the Minnesota Republican.
But he could still face trouble securing a majority of votes on the House floor, where just a small clutch of defectors could doom his election. Republicans emerging from the closed-door meeting Tuesday said that an internal roll call vote showed that as many as 25 lawmakers said they would not support Emmer.
Rep. Rick W. Allen of Georgia told CNN that he could not support Emmer because of his vote in 2022 in support of a bill codifying federal protections for same-sex couples.
And some hard-right Donald Trump supporters outside Congress have sought to block Emmer from winning the speaker’s gavel, claiming he has been insufficiently supportive of the former president.
A former college hockey player and coach, Emmer served two terms as chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
This article originally appeared in the New York Times.
Related Articles
Jenna Ellis becomes latest Trump lawyer to plead guilty over efforts to overturn Georgia’s election
David French: The worst scandal in American higher education isn’t in the Ivy League
GOP picks Minnesota’s Tom Emmer as its nominee for House speaker — but there’s no guarantee he can win the gavel
Biden launches 31 technology hubs nationally, including St. Paul
Letters: Copper-wire thieves strike again. And again. This isn’t working, St. Paul
Leave a Reply