Tom Emmer Becomes GOP Candidate for Next Speaker of the House

366
Tom Emmer Becomes GOP Candidate for Next Speaker of the House

There is a new potential suitor to become the next Republican Speaker of the House: Rep. Tom Emmer.

The GOP Majority Whip, a Congressman from Minnesota, has emerged to become the favorite candidate for Speaker to proceed to a House floor vote.

Emmer steadily picked up support in multiple rounds of voting and finally drew a majority votes in a fifth ballot.

President Trump was recently asked if he would endorse Emmer for Speaker.

“He’s my biggest fan now because he called me yesterday and told me he’s my biggest fan but we’re looking at a lot of people,” Trump said. “I’m trying to stay out of that as much as possible.”

Pro-Trump conservative Laura Loomer had fierce criticism for Emmer on Steve Bannon’s War Room.

“Why, when we have a Republican-controlled House, why would we want our speaker to be somebody who was as compromised enough to once be a paid spokesperson for an organization dedicated to abolishing the Electoral College that was funded by George Soros?” Loomer asked.

The secret ballot vote for a new House Speaker saw Emmer at the early top of the field.

The GOP Ballot for Speaker cast in the first round were as follows:

  • Tom Emmer: 78
  • Mike Johnson: 34
  • Byron Donalds: 29
  • Kevin Hern: 27
  • Austin Scott: 18
  • Jack Bergman: 16
  • Pete Sessions: 8

Sessions was dropped after the first ballot, according to Capitol Hill reporter Mitchell Miller.

“Six candidates remain in the GOP race for House Speaker. TX Rep. Pete Sessions was dropped after the first ballot, getting the least number of votes,” he reported.

Elise Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman from New York, discussed the conference for the secret ballot vote for Speaker.

“Today at 9 am, I will gavel in the House GOP Organizing Conference for the purpose of electing a Speaker. Each candidate will be nominated by one colleague,” Stefanik said. “Votes will be cast by secret ballot with the candidate with the lowest vote total dropped from each subsequent secret ballot. We will vote until one candidate receives a majority of the votes cast.”

As reported earlier, there were nine Republicans who offered themselves to be candidate for Speaker after the ousting of Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and the inability to wrangle enough votes for Jim Jordan (R-OH).