A lot can happen over a weekend, and a lot did happen in the House speaker’s race over this past weekend, as the list of official candidates grew from six Friday afternoon to nine by the filing deadline of noon on Sunday.
On Friday, as The Western Journal reported, six Republicans have confirmed that they plan to run for the speaker’s chair, with no less than three others considering it.
We noted then that those numbers were subject to change, and change they did.
CNN reported at about 4:00 p.m. that five official candidates had jumped in — Jack Bergman of Michigan, Byron Donalds of Florida, Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma and Austin Scott of Georgia.
However, at about the same time as CNN published that report, a sixth — Texas Rep. Pete Sessions — threw his hat into the ring with a post to X.
Also said to be thinking about a run were Jodey Arrington of Texas, Mark Green of Tennessee and Mike Johnson of Louisiana late Friday afternoon.
Yesterday, just after the filing deadline, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik listed the official candidates on X.
Louisiana’s Mike Johnson apparently decided in favor of joining the fray, while the other two listed as maybes Friday had apparently decided against it.
However, two others not on the media’s radar last week were on Stefanik’s list: Pennsylvania’s Dan Meuser and Alabama’s Gary Palmer.
Numerous media reports confirmed the list (although it appeared that most of them, like NBC News for example, were also relying on Stefanik’s list).
Today at noon was the deadline for announced candidates for Speaker.
Official Announced Candidates to the House Republican Conference include:
Jack Bergman (MI)
Byron Donalds (FL)
Tom Emmer (MN)
Kevin Hern (OK)
Mike Johnson (LA)
Dan Meuser (PA)
Gary Palmer (AL)
Austin Scott…— Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) October 22, 2023
House Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry laid out the schedule for doing just that Friday afternoon before the House recessed for the weekend.
McHenry, who is charged with leading the House of Representatives until a new speaker can be elected, told reporters that the extra time off was “an important thing for House Republicans.”
“House Republicans will return on Monday at 6:30 p.m. for a candidate forum,” he said, “followed by an election process on Tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m.”
“The reason why I made that decision is that we need space and time for candidates to speak to other members,” the North Carolina Republican explained. “It’s fair to say that Leader [Steve] Scalise wasn’t given adequate time; he had 24 hours to campaign, I don’t think that was right for him. Our nominee, [Jim] Jordan, was given a little more time, not right for him. The conference made a decision that we’re going to move forward with a new speaker nominee today.
“But the space and time for a reset I think is an important thing for House Republicans,” he added.
Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman said in an X post Monday morning that it was uncertain whether any of the current candidates could garner the necessary 217 votes to win the chair.
He also said that if Republicans couldn’t get anyone over the top by week’s end, “someone will move to elect a speaker pro tem.”
That would presumably be similar to an idea raised and then quashed last week that would empower McHenry or another Republican representative with most of the powers of a normally elected speaker, but for only a temporary basis.
That idea proved unpopular with the GOP Conference last week; it’s unknown whether additional failed votes to elect a speaker would change that significantly enough to allow a temporary speaker to be elected without Republicans having to bargain with some Democrats to get additional votes.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
