Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer drops House speaker candidacy hours after nomination
WASHINGTON — Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer is ending his bid to become the next House speaker just hours after he was nominated by House Republicans in a secret ballot vote Tuesday morning, according to CBS News.
The House Republican's conference was the third such contest held this month after Rep. Kevin McCarthy was removed as speaker on Oct. 3.
Emmer was one of seven candidates, along with Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigan, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama, Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia and Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas.
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Emmer, the third-ranking member of House leadership as majority whip, announced last week he would run for speaker "to bring our conference together and get back to work." He was also backed by McCarthy.
He could only afford to lose four Republican votes, and in the end there were about 20 representatives who said they could not support him.
Some of Emmer's detractors say he is too moderate to be speaker; he doesn't support Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump enough; he voted to certify Joe Biden's presidential election; he has voted to raise the debt ceiling and keep the government open; and he supported putting gay marriage into law.
But in the end, it may have been the arrows in former President Trump's quiver that sank Emmer. He took to social media Tuesday to speak out against Emmer's nomination, referring to him as a "RINO" — a Republican in name only — and calling him a "globalist" who "never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement," and who "spent more time defending Ilhan Omar, than he did me."
Reps. Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan, the latter who Trump last endorsed, failed in their earlier bids for the position.
The nominee will need 217 votes from the full House to be confirmed as speaker. If Emmer was confirmed, he would have been third in the line of presidential succession — the closest a Minnesotan has been since Walter Mondale served as vice president under Jimmy Carter.
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Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina is serving as speaker pro tempore.
Without a speaker, the House is unable to pass any legislation amid numerous crises at home and abroad.
"We're going to have to figure out how to get our act together — I mean, big boys and big girls have got to quit making excuses and we just got to get it done," said Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., a conservative caucus leader.
The federal government risks a shutdown in a matter of weeks if Congress fails to pass funding legislation by a Nov. 17 deadline to keep services and offices running. More immediately, President Biden has asked Congress to provide $105 billion in aid — to help Israel and Ukraine amid their wars and to shore up the U.S. border with Mexico. Federal aviation and farming programs face expiration without action.
Those running for speaker were mostly conservatives and election deniers, who either voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results, when Biden defeated Trump, in the runup to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, or joined a subsequent lawsuit challenging the results.
