Representative Steve Scalise (R-La.) has received the Republican Party’s nomination for speaker of the House.
House Republicans voted behind closed doors to select Scalise, who defeated Jim Jordan for the position 113-99. A simple majority was needed to choose a nominee.
The full House is slated to vote on the new speaker, perhaps as early as today, where a nominee will need 217 votes in order to secure the position.
“First I want to thank my House Republican colleagues for designating me as the speaker. Obviously we still have work to do. We’re going to have to go upstairs on the House floor and resolve this and then get the House open again,” Scalise said after the vote.
He emphasized that the House’s first priority is supporting Israel in its conflict with Hamas, stating, “We need to make sure we’re sending a message to people throughout the world that the House is open and doing the people’s business, making sure that we’re unequivocally standing and our first resolution that we pass under Speaker Steve Scalise will be to make it clear that we stand with Israel.”
While Scalise is likely to win the speaker’s gavel, his victory is not assured. Some Republicans have openly stated they will not support him, including Representative Max Miller (R-Ohio). “Well, leader Scalise won, and it’s not over. I’m still throwing my support behind Jim Jordan for speaker, I’m not going to change my vote now or any time soon on the House floor,” said Miller.
Scalise is noteworthy as the Republican congressman who was shot in 2017 at a practice for the Congressional Baseball Game by radical leftist and Bernie Sanders supporter James Hodgkinson. Scalise was the only congressman who was hit during the shooting, and he was hospitalized for more than a month owing to the incident.
Scalise holds a lifetime score on The New American’s Freedom Index of 67 percent. This is higher than outgoing Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s 60 percent, but lower than runner-up nominee Jim Jordan’s 82 percent.
