McCarthy’s House Speaker Replacement Revealed

House Republicans have officially named their nominee for speaker, and the choice fell on Majority Leader Steve Scalise, representing Louisiana. Their decision was reached after a private meeting that lasted over two hours on Wednesday. The selection process involved a secret ballot vote, with Scalise securing 113 votes, while Jim Jordan, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, received 99 votes. In a prior vote, House Republicans decided not to modify the threshold for electing a speaker to 217, which represents a majority within the conference.

According to Fox, this development comes on the heels of a recent event where former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a representative from California, was removed from his position through a vote. Notably, this marked the first instance in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives where its own leader was removed by a vote consisting of eight members from McCarthy’s own party and all House Democrats.

The race to replace McCarthy quickly boiled down to a competition between Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan, hailing from Ohio. Despite their years-long rivalry, Scalise had served as McCarthy’s right-hand man. On the other hand, Jordan, who enjoyed closer ties with McCarthy, initially garnered support from prominent conservatives within the GOP conference, such as Chip Roy, the House Freedom Caucus Policy Chair, representing Texas. It’s worth noting that Jordan was one of the original co-founders of the House Freedom Caucus.