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Special Coverage: 25 Years Since 9/11
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House Republicans will vote yet again

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer

Reuters
Willis Sparks
By Willis SparksOctober 23, 2023
Willis Sparks
Willis Sparks is a senior editor for GZERO Daily. He is also a Director in the Global Macro practice at Eurasia Group, where he has worked since 2005. He has made speeches on international politics on every continent except Antarctica. Willis holds degrees from Brown University, the Juilliard School, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. He also holds an honorary degree from the Moscow Art Theatre School. A native of Macon, Georgia, Willis has worked as a stuntman at New York's Metropolitan Opera. As a child, he declined an opportunity to spend an afternoon riding the Great American Scream Machine, a rollercoaster, with Ronald McDonald, for money. He has never regretted that decision.
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For three weeks, the US House of Representatives has failed to function as Republicans fight over who should serve as speaker. The government will shut down in less than one month unless someone can win the 217 votes needed to lead the House and then advance a bill to fund the government, a bill that passes the Senate and earns the president’s signature. Bipartisan calls for aid to Israel and Ukraine are also held up until the majority of Republicans elect a speaker.

Later today, House Republicans will vote by secret ballot on eight new candidates from among their members. In alphabetical order, they are:

  • Jack Bergman (Michigan)
  • Byron Donalds (Florida)
  • Tom Emmer (Minnesota)
  • Kevin Hern (Oklahoma)
  • Mike Johnson (Louisiana)
  • Gary Palmer (Alabama)
  • Austin Scott (Georgia)
  • Pete Sessions (Texas)

Of these, Emmer, Donalds, Hern, and Johnson appear to have the best chance to win.

Emmer, who currently serves as majority whip, looks to have the broadest support, but former president/front-running GOP candidate Donald Trump adamantly opposes him. (Emmer voted to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Of the other eight candidates, only Austin Scott joined him.)

In each round of voting, the lowest vote-getter will be dropped until there’s just one left. But as Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio have discovered, the winner of this process must go on to secure 217 of the 221 total Republican House members to become speaker.

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