WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans picked Rep. Tom Emmer as their nominee for House speaker Tuesday as they desperately searched for a way out of the chaos they have created, but the choice was quickly rejected by Donald Trump and other hardliners, leaving it highly uncertain the GOP latest hopeful can win the gavel.
Three weeks after Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy, throwing the House into turmoil, they appear no closer to ending the bitter infighting and choosing a new speaker who can credibly unite the GOP majority, lead the party and get the U.S. Congress working again.
Dejected Republicans, many hearing from angry far-right callers pressuring them to vote against their own nominee, planned to reassemble later Tuesday afternoon ahead of possible floor action.
“We’re in the same cul-de-sac,” said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., the chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus.
Emmer of Minnesota, who is the party’s third-ranking Republican as the GOP whip, jumped out in front during private morning balloting among a hodgepodge list of mostly lesser-known congressmen aspiring to be speaker, a powerful position second in line to the presidency.
But no sooner did Emmer win the majority vote of his colleagues than his nomination was shot down by a powerful detractor he had tried to win over — Trump, the Republican front-runner for the 2024 presidential election, who has long criticized the party’s former campaign chief as disloyal.
While Emmer won a simple majority in a roll call behind closed doors — 117 votes — he lost more than two dozen Republicans, leaving him far short of what will be needed during a House floor tally ahead.
Trump, who has played an influential role tipping the tally in the speaker’s race, wrote on social media Tuesday that he has “many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House.” But Emmer, he said, “is not one of them” and it would be a ”mistake” to give him the gavel.
Others piled on in what was, in some ways, a do-over of the Trump-Emmer feud that has simmered since January, when the former president’s allies tried to stop Emmer’s rise to the GOP whip’s job.
“He doesn’t have the support in the room right now,” said Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., who had challenged Emmer at the start of the year. “We’ll see where we go from here.”
The House has been in turmoil since a contingent of hard-line Republicans ousted McCarthy, creating what’s now a governing crisis that’s preventing the normal operations of Congress. There appears to be no resolution within reach.
Coming in a steady second in the balloting was constitutional law expert Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who directly battled Emmer in the fifth round, picking up 97 votes. He ultimately announced his full support for his colleague.
“What we have to do in this room is unite and begin to govern again,” said Johnson.
Others were eliminated during multiple rounds of voting, including Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, a top Trump ally, and McDonald’s franchise owner Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, a conservative leader who plied his colleagues with hamburgers seeking their support. Reps. Austin Scott of Georgia, Jack Bergman of Michigan, Pete Sessions of Texas, Gary Palmer of Alabama and Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania also dropped out.
Having rejected the top replacements, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and the Trump-backed Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, there is no longer any obvious choice for the job.
