Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., has dropped out of the race for speaker hours after being named House Republicans’ nominee.
Emmer won a majority of the GOP Conference on Tuesday morning after five rounds of voting, against six other potential candidates.
But it quickly became clear that he did not have enough support to outright win a House-wide vote. With Republicans’ razor-thin majority, a GOP speaker-designate can only lose four members of their own party to win the gavel without Democratic support.
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House Majority Whip Tom Emmer speaks to reporters as he leaves a House Republican candidates forum where congressmen who ran for Speaker of the House presented their platforms in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill on October 23, 2023 (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
At least 25 Republicans said they would not support Emmer in a House floor vote after he won the title.
More GOP lawmakers indicated after the roll call that the conference needed to move on to a new nominee.
“This morning I voted for Rep. Donalds for speaker. Followed by Rep Johnson. Rep Emmer does not have votes to be speaker and I will be unable to support him on the floor,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., wrote on social media platform X.
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Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., called on GOP Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson, R-La., and Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern, R-Okla., to jump back into the race. Both lost to Emmer earlier in the day.
Rep. Matt Rosendale was among those who spoke up after the conference vote calling for a new nominee (Getty Images)
“This morning, the Republican Conference met to elect a Speaker. I supported Kevin Hern until he was eliminated from the ballot, at which time I supported Mike Johnson,” Rosendale said on X. “Tom Emmer has secured the nomination but no longer has a path to secure 217 votes. It’s time to get back in the room and give Kevin Hern and Mike Johnson an opportunity to get to 217!”
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Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump exerted external pressure against Emmer.
“I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social app. “RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them.”
Former President Trump has also waded into the race to bash Emmer (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Emmer is the third speaker-designate House Republicans have had in as many weeks. Congress has been paralyzed since eight GOP lawmakers voted with all Democrats to oust ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the first time in history the House deposed its own leader.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio – two of the highest-profile House Republicans after McCarthy – were both forced out of the race because they were unable to win over the 217 Republicans needed for victory.