Republican nominee for speaker Steve Scalise drops out

Republicans picked the majority leader in a secret ballot — but only by a narrow margin of 113-99 over hardliner Jim Jordan.

Steve Scalise announces on Thursday night that he has withdrawn his nomination for the speakership. Picture: AFP

Republicans’ top choice for Speaker, Steve Scalise, pulled out of the race late Thursday night (Friday AEST) after failing to secure enough support from Republicans in the House of Representatives, leaving congress paralysed as the White House seeks its support for additional funding for Israel and Ukraine.

After edging out fellow Republican Jim Jordan 113 votes to 99 to replace Kevin McCarthy, who was removed last week, Mr Scalise determined he wouldn’t be able to attract enough support in the full chamber, in which Republicans hold a slim majority, after at least six Republicans said they wouldn’t support him.

“This country is counting on us to come back together,” Mr Scalise said after informing the Republican conference of his decision, leaving the congressional Republicans leaderless a little over a month before the US government is due to shutdown unless congress approves funding.

“This House of Representatives needs a speaker, and we need to open up the House again. But clearly, not everybody is there and there’s still schisms that have to get resolved,” he added.

Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who led the charge to remove Mr McCarthy last week, threw his support behind Mr Jordan late Thursday night, amid reports the hardline Ohio congressman would step back into the race after promising to support Mr Scalise on the House floor.

“It’s Jim Jordan Time!” he said on X, referring to the powerful chairman of the judiciary committee, who has risen to prominence this year as part of GOP efforts to launch impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden over allegations of influence peddling.

Republicans hold 221 seats in the House of Representatives, Democrats 212, implying a successful Speaker needs at least 217 votes to secure the powerful position.

Democrats took to social media to urge Republicans to back the House Democratic Party leader, Hakeem Jeffries, who would need the support of five Republicans to take the gavel.

“We’ve been waiting for House Republicans to choose a House Speaker for eight days now. The fastest way for Congress to open up again is for five people to vote for Jeffries,” said Grace Meng, Democratic congresswoman from New York, on X.

Mr Jeffries, who has the support of all Democrats in the House, said it was “time for traditional Republicans to break from MAGA extremists and partner with House Democrats on a bipartisan path forward”.

Mr Scalise, 58, who was majority leader under Mr McCarthy, had been considered a natural successor to Mr McCarthy, although he had faced criticism from some Republicans as ‘McCarthy 2.0’ for allegedly being insufficiently different from Mr McCarthy in political terms.

Based on his voting record, Mr McCarthy has a ‘liberty score’ of 54 per cent according to Conservative Review, which periodically scores all members of congress, and Mr Scalise has a score of 58 per cent, compared with Mr Jordan’s rating of 94 per cent.

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump had earlier endorsed Mr Jordan, after floating the idea that he himself could become an interim Speaker, which would be technically possible under House rules.

“Steve is a man that in serious trouble from the standpoint of cancer... This is tremendous stress,” he said on Thursday, referring to Mr Scalise’s battle with blood cancer, which was a reason some Republican gave for not supporting the Louisiana congressman, who was also shot by an extremist Bernie Sanders supporter in 2017.

Republicans have been sharply divided over whether to provide additional funding for Ukraine and over how hard to push the White House and congressional Democrats to cut government spending, which has contributed a record budget deficits.

“People looking for a perfect system should not be looking at the U.S. House right now,” Republican congressman Dusty Johnson told The Washington Post on Thursday night.

A group of eight Republicans voted with Democrats to remove Mr McCarthy, the first time in US history a Speaker has been removed by a floor vote of the House, ostensibly because he was insufficiently insistent on cutting federal spending.