House Majority Whip Tom Emmer won the nomination of the GOP for the speakership role but dropped his bid for the position a few hours after the announcement.
The Republican lawmaker's decision has placed the right-wing party back to square one in deciding who would lead them after the ousting of Kevin McCarthy. The House GOP will hold another candidate forum on Tuesday evening and give the next round of candidates until 5:30 p.m. to declare their bids for the position.
Tom Emmer Drops Bid for House Speaker
Emmer won the nomination for House speaker on Tuesday against a large field of eight Republicans, including Rep. Mike Johnson, who came in second place after several rounds of voting. The latter tried to rally holdouts around Emmer but did not succeed.
Shortly after the House majority whip's victory for the nomination, former United States President Donald Trump expressed his opposition. The latter posted on his Truth Social platform, "Voting for a Globalist RINO like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake!" He added that the lawmaker was out of touch with Republican voters, as per CBS News.
Emmer needed to persuade the far-right members of the GOP conference to vote for him on the floor to win the speakership. A roll-call vote in the conference indicated that more than 20 lawmakers opposed the House majority whip's bid for the position. This was far more than the four Republicans he could afford to lose on the House floor.
As the GOP continues not to have a speaker-designee, there will be no vote on Tuesday and the House remains more or less paralyzed. The party cannot pass legislation without a speaker, including funding military assistance for Ukraine and Israel.
Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Patrick McHenry is in charge, but he insists that his role is limited to overseeing the election of a new, permanent speaker. There are efforts to expand his power potentially, but these withered last week.
Republican Dysfunction
Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern also dropped his bid for the gavel because he said the party needs a speaker as soon as possible. He added that the situation has become more about individuals than the country and the United States' presence around the world, according to The Hill.
Hern also expressed his support of Mike Johnson, calling him a great individual who could be a great leader for the conference. He added that he believes Johnson will be able to shore up the required 217 votes on the House floor, noting that he has worked with colleagues across the spectrum of the Republican Party.
In a statement, Rep. Steve Womack called the situation a "pretty sad commentary on governance." He added that the American public cannot look at what is happening right now and have reasonable confidence that the GOP conference can be governed.
The breakdown on Tuesday regarding Emmer's nomination was the latest evidence of the seemingly unending Republican dysfunction. Many of the ones who opposed his bid for House speaker were members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, said the New York Times.
