By Lisa Mascaro, Stephen Groves, Farnoush Amiri and Kevin Freking, Associated Press 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans picked Rep. Tom Emmer as their nominee for House speaker on Tuesday, as they try for a third time to fill the top leadership position and get Congress back to work.

Emmer, the GOP Whip and senior-most candidate, jumped out front in private balloting as the top vote-getter among the hodge-podge list of mostly lesser-known congressmen for speaker, a powerful position second in line to the presidency.

But it’s no sure path to the gavel. Emmer, of Minnesota, won a simple majority of his colleagues behind closed doors, but he will need the support of most all Republicans during a House floor vote ahead.

U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) (R) and Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) arrive to a House Republican candidates forum where congressmen who are running for Speaker of the House will present their platforms in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill on October 24, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

It’s three weeks since Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy. The House speaker will need to accomplish the seemingly impossible job of uniting the GOP majority.

“We’re going to have to figure out how to get our act together — I mean, big boys and big girls have got to quit making excuses and we just got to get it done,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., a conservative caucus leader.

The candidate list, though quickly slimming, was long and jumbled with no obvious choice for the job. Emmer, a lawyer, is known as a gruff hockey coach who reached out to Donald Trump for backing and was gaining on the first four ballots.

Coming in a steady second was constitutional law expert Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who directly battled Emmer in the fifth-round private ballot.

Others, including Rep. Byron Donalds, a top Trump ally, were dropping out. McDonald’s franchise owner Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, a conservative leader, plied his colleagues with hamburgers seeking their support but also dropped out Tuesday.

Also withdrawing from the race were Reps. Austin Scott of Georgia, Jack Bergman of Michigan, Pete Sessions of Texas, Gary Palmer of Alabama and Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania.

The House has been in turmoil, without a speaker since the start of the month after a contingent of hard-line Republicans ousted McCarthy, creating what’s now a governing crisis that’s preventing the normal operations of Congress.

The federal government risks a shutdown in a matter of weeks if Congress fails to pass funding legislation by a Nov. 17 deadline to keep services and offices running. More immediately, President Joe Biden has asked Congress to provide $105 billion in aid — to help Israel and Ukraine amid their wars and to shore up the U.S. border with Mexico. Federal aviation and farming programs face expiration without action.

Those running for speaker were mostly conservatives and election deniers, who either voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results, when Biden defeated Trump, in the runup to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, or joined a subsequent lawsuit challenging the results.

Some Democrats have eyed Emmer, the third-ranking House GOP leader, who had voted to certify the 2020 election results as a potential partner in governing the House.

But Trump allies and other hard-liners have been critical of Emmer over his support of a same-sex marriage initiative and perceived criticisms of the former president. Among the far-right groups pressuring lawmakers over the speaker’s vote, some are now attacking Emmer.

Trump downplayed, even derided, Emmer, with whom he has had a rocky relationship, while presenting himself Monday as a kingmaker who talks to “a lot of congressmen” seeking his stamp of approval.

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, the hard-right leader who engineered McCarthy’s ouster, has said several of those who were running — Hern, Donalds or Johnson would make a “phenomenal” choice for speaker.

What Gaetz and other hard-liners are resisting is a leader who joined in voting for the budget deal that McCarthy struck with Biden earlier this year, which set federal spending levels that the far-right Republicans don’t agree with and now want to undo. They are pursuing steeper cuts to federal programs and services with next month’s funding deadline.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she wanted assurances the candidates would pursue impeachment inquiries into Biden and other top Cabinet officials.

During the congressinal turmoil, the House is now led by a nominal interim speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., the bow tie-wearing chairman of the Financial Services Committee whose main job is to elect a more permanent speaker.

Some Republicans — and Democrats — would like to simply give McHenry more power to get on with the routine business of governing. But McHenry, the first person to be in the position that was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks as an emergency measure, has declined to back those overtures.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.

Commissioner of Education Jeffrey Riley announced Tuesday he will not name the typical “chronically underperforming schools” this year, shifting focus instead to “attendance priority schools” to address a persistent, chronic absenteeism crisis.

“While (underperforming) designations have served us well in the past, in reviewing the data this year, it’s clear that we need a different approach, one based on collaboration and working together as opposed to merely labeling schools,” Riley said at a Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting Tuesday morning. “One that is focused laser focus on school attendance.”

Though the attendance has begun to recover from the pandemic peak — from 28% absenteeism statewide to 22% this year — the schools across the state are still at “unprecedented” levels of absenteeism. From 2019 to 2023, according to DESE data, chronic absenteeism has grown 72%.

Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing at least 10% of days in a school year for any reason. It is connected to risks of lower literacy, academic achievement and graduation — several pediatricians also testified Tuesday to the pressing health risks of the issue.

Roughly over 1,300 schools, or three-quarters of Massachusetts schools, will fall into the new “attendance priority schools” designation, Riley said.

The former “underperforming” or “chronically underperforming schools” designations directed millions in state funds to schools in need of additional resources. The lack of that support and implementation of a new funding mechanism was a point of concern for board members.

Riley noted the $4 million in funding will go to help the districts better track chronic absenteeism, working with parents to address the issue, “acceleration” or “recovery academies” that have typically helped students catch up over vacation times, and other resources.

“When you go to say, I’m going to use this money for these different things — what voices from the community will you incorporate?” asked Board Chair Katherine Craven, questioning the specifics of the plan. … “How does this information become actionable? And actionable on the department’s part, because implementation is the key for everything in life, right?”

The commissioner called the prioritization “the most important thing we can do as an educational community if we want to improve outcomes for children” and noted the need to innovate solutions. Members said the issue will be discussed further at upcoming meetings.

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Riley said despite the persistent issue, Massachusetts has had the fastest rate of attendance recovery among 11 states with 2022-23 chronic absenteeism data.

Absenteeism rates varied among districts in the 2022-23 year, from a few charter school districts with outlier attendance rates as low as 42.5% to rates as high 98.4%. In the latest school year, Boston had an 88.7% attendance rate, the 18th lowest in the state and fourth lowest among non-charter, in-person public school districts.

“Remember, this level of absenteeism is something we’ve never seen before,” Riley said. “We’ve always had chronic absenteeism, but the numbers are staggering across the country.”