12 October 2023

Scalise Withdraws From House Speaker Race, Leaving G.O.P. Fuming in Chaos

Republicans concluded a meeting Thursday night without coming to an agreement on who would be their nominee. They will meet again at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT) on Friday.

US House speaker nominee Scalise drops out of race, deepening crisis

By David Morgan and Moira Warburton

October 12, 20237:12 PM PDT Updated 32 min ago

Republicans had hoped to avoid a repeat of the embarrassing spectacle that occurred in January, when hardline conservatives forced McCarthy to endure 15 floor votes over four days before winning the gavel.

The New York Times

Scalise Withdraws From House Speaker Race, Leaving G.O.P. in Chaos

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana withdrew on Thursday from consideration for the speakership he was on the cusp of claiming after...

Scalise drops out of speaker race

The Louisiana Republican had no clear path to the 217 votes he would need to take the House GOP's reins.

By NICHOLAS WU, JORDAIN CARNEY, DANIELLA DIAZ and SARAH FERRIS

10/12/2023, 8:07PM ET

The House GOP’s pick for speaker, Steve Scalise, announced Thursday he will no longer seek the gavel as he confronted a likely insurmountable vote shortage.
While Scalise had won a majority of votes in an internal GOP ballot a day earlier, he faced an ever-growing list of Republicans who vowed to support only his opponent, Rep. Jim Jordan, on the floor. The Ohio Republican is now expected to make another run for the position. . .In his remarks to reporters, Scalise was blunt about his own frustration with the various forces within the conference that kept him from lining up those 217 votes.

“There’s some folks that really need to look in the mirror the next couple of days and decide are we going to get back on track? Are they going to try to pursue their own agenda? You can’t do both. And I think we’re going to get there,” Scalise said.
“We still need to get a speaker and I’m going to continue to push as hard as we can to make that happen as quickly as it has to happen. But it wasn’t gonna happen today. It wasn’t going to happen tomorrow. It needs to happen soon.”