House Republicans Select Speaker Nominee Tuesday Morning, Drops Out Tuesday Afternoon

A majority of House Republicans selected a new nominee for Speaker of the House Tuesday morning, only to see a minority force him to drop out Tuesday afternoon, setting off yet another round of secret balloting Tuesday evening and another choice for the House's top office.

It is the latest indication Democrats and even some Republicans are saying that this GOP conference may be incapable of governing.

"This is dysfunction junction right now," said Stephanie Bice, the sophomore lawmaker from Oklahoma City.

Bice and many others at the conference are exasperated and say it's wrong that a small group of members has been holding up the entire conference.

"It’s frustrating," Bice (R-OK5) said. "We have a border crisis that continues to rage….we have this war in Israel going, and we’ve got to get back on track, and the only way we can do that is electing a speaker."

The goal going into the day was to elect a speaker. Starting with seven candidates, members voted on secret ballots for their choice, eventually narrowing the field to two men: Louisiana's Mike Johnson and Minnesota's Tom Emmer. Rep. Emmer, the current Majority Whip, defeated Johnson in a final round of voting, but a quickly called roll-call voice vote showed more than twenty members were not prepared to support Emmer in a floor vote.

Oklahoma Congressman Josh Brecheen (R-OK2) was among those who voted for someone other than Emmer.

"I voted against Tom Emmer for Speaker of the House today," Brecheen said on X. "Because his voting positions do not reflect the conservative values of Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District."

Specifically, Brecheen and others complained that Emmer had voted in support of same-sex marriage.

"He has a moderate voting record as rated by many different conservative groups regarding other social/fiscal policy positions," Brecheen said.

Emmer initially began working to address the members' concerns during a closed-door meeting.

"What Tom is doing right now is having those who have a difference of opinion come up and directly ask him, 'What is the problem?' and see if he can solve it," Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said. "It’s the best way to handle it instead of going to the floor."

Late Tuesday afternoon, Emmer dropped out, apparently not seeing a path to 217 votes and unable to get his critics to look past certain votes.

"If we’re going to actually look at someone’s voting record to put them in the speaker’s position," said Bice in an interview, "no one can get there. We need to put those things aside and look at who can actually get us across the finish line."

The latest member who may get the chance to unify the party is Louisiana's Mike Johnson, who re-entered the race following Emmer's departure and won another secret ballot election Tuesday night. Rep. Kevin Hern also briefly rejoined the competition but dropped out early and gave his support to Johnson.

There was reportedly no opposition to Johnson in a roll-call voice vote, and Republicans are expected to go to the House floor Wednesday.