WASHINGTON — As House Speaker Kevin McCarthy fought unsuccessfully to keep his gavel Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer was among a group of Republicans who are considered to be on an “A” list of candidates who could replace him.
At the very least, McCarthy’s brutal takedown allows Emmer, R-6th District, who currently holds the No. 3 position, to move one rung up the GOP leadership ladder.
McCarthy suffered the humiliation of failing to fend off a motion to oust him when a group of eight conservative House members led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, joined all House Democrats to vote to remove him from the speakership. Every GOP House lawmaker from Minnesota was loyal to McCarthy.
McCarthy said Tuesday evening he would not seek to run again for speaker.
“I may have lost a vote today, but I fought for what I believe in — and I believe in America. It has been an honor to serve,” McCarthy said.
After McCarthy’s ouster, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-North Carolina, was named speaker tempore, filling the seat temporarily while House Republicans choose their next leader. McHenry has said he does not want the job on a permanent basis.
So, the new job opening is expected to draw the interest of some of the most ambitious House Republicans.
When asked if he would run for speaker of the House, Emmer, currently the majority whip, indicated late Tuesday that he would not leapfrog Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana. Scalise holds the No. 2 job in the GOP House leadership, that of majority leader.
“Steve Scalise I’ve known for a long time. He’d make a great speaker,” Emmer told reporters.
An Emmer spokesman on Wednesday confirmed that the Minnesota Republican is backing Scalise for speaker.
Scalise is affable, well-liked and has impeccable conservative credentials. But he’s undergoing cancer treatment following a multiple myeloma diagnosis in August and has not said whether he wants to replace McCarthy.
On Tuesday evening, Scalise did not say what he planned to do.
“I enjoy working with Tom (Emmer) and our leadership team, and we have a lot of work to get done. But I haven’t made any formal announcements,” Scalise told reporters.
If Scalise does win the speakership, there’s a good chance Emmer would move into the No. 2 job of majority leader and his deputy, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pennsylvania, is favored to become majority whip.
The influential — and large — Republican Texas delegation has invited both Scalise and Emmer to lunch on Wednesday, presumably to vet the two lawmakers.
Emmer, who ran for governor in 2010 but lost to Democrat Mark Dayton by fewer than 9,000 votes, has repeatedly demonstrated that he wants to climb the political ladder.
“Absolutely,” said University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs of Emmer’s ambitions. “I think he’s got the kind of fire to do so.”
As the former head of the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) and as majority whip, Emmer has forged relationships with a broad range of Republican House members, including those from the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus who have bedeviled McCarthy.
For instance, during a recent interview with Newsmax, Gaetz said Emmer would be a good candidate to replace McCarthy, “as someone who has a lot of credibility.”
Yet on Tuesday Emmer was mocked by Gaetz on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Gaetz insinuated that Emmer had been secretly negotiating with Democrats over funding for Ukraine, which was left out of a short-term spending bill that prevented the shutdown of the U.S. government last weekend.
“Hey Tom — When did you learn about the secret Ukraine side deal and what is in it? Asking for a friend,” Gaetz said.
Emmer is also a skilled fundraiser, something House Republicans will need to replace McCarthy’s fundraising prowess.
Others interested in moving up in leadership ranks are Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York, a former moderate who made a sharp political U-turn, becoming one of former President Trump’s biggest defenders on Capitol Hill. Stefanik, currently holding the No. 4 position in GOP leadership, said Wednesday she will not seek McCarthy’s job but is interested in the position of majority leader or majority whip. That could result in a contest between Stefanik and Emmer.
Meanwhile, some mainstream House Republicans are hoping Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, will seek the speakership. Cole has a history of forging bipartisan spending deals.
Other Republicans may toss their hats into the ring. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio said he is interested in replacing McCarthy. And Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, who is Black and, like Jordan, was previously nominated during the protracted January floor election for speaker, could also run.
Some House Republicans are even trying to draft former President Donald Trump to be speaker. The speaker of the House does not have to be a member of the U.S. House.
McHenry said those interested in running for the next speaker of the House will have a chance to make a pitch to Republican members at a candidate’s forum next Tuesday.
A powder keg
For now, the ouster of McCarthy has plunged the House into uncertainty and confusion. All work on bills that would prevent the shutdown of the federal government on Nov. 17, when the short-term funding bill expires, will have to wait until McCarthy’s replacement is sworn in, because no legislation can be considered until there is a new speaker.
“I am disappointed in today’s chaos that brought the business of the People’s House to a grinding halt,” said Rep. Brad Finstad, R-1st District, in a statement.
The ouster of a speaker for the first time in U.S. history has also created some very bitter divisions among House GOP members.
“I feel that the emotions are such that this can really blow up,” said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Arkansas, who presided over the House during the vote to remove McCarthy. “This could really turn into somewhat of a powder keg.”
Womack warned there could be violence, since there are former military members and former football and hockey players among the Republican members who are extremely angry with their colleagues who ousted McCarthy.
During a fierce and often raucous debate by Republican lawmakers on the House floor before the 216-210 vote, Emmer fiercely defended McCarthy.
“Make no mistake. We need Kevin McCarthy to remain speaker if we’re going to stay focused on our mission of delivering commonsense wins for the American people. We’ve shown Americans what success looks like when we come together as a team. Now it’s time for us to stand together stronger than ever so we can go back to the work our majority was elected to do,” Emmer said.
Some McCarthy loyalists hoped that Democrats would throw a lifeline. But in a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning, Democratic leaders showed a video of McCarthy on CBS’s “Face the Nation on Sunday” in which he attempted to blame Democrats for wanting to shut down the government.
That, and other things, rankled House Democrats, who stood firm in voting for McCarthy’s ouster, saying he could not be trusted.
Rep. Betty McCollum, D-4th District, said McCarthy’s failure to vote to certify the results of the 2020 election was among the reasons she voted for the motion to remove him.
“If Republicans are going to need our help in the future, it’s going to come with conditions,” McCollum said.[cms_ad:x104]Rep. Dean Phillips, D-3rd District, an active member of the bipartisan Problem Solver’s Caucus, said he was “disappointed that former Speaker McCarthy chose not to work with Democrats, reform Congress, and make it work as intended.”
“An historic, missed opportunity to demonstrate bipartisanship and restore faith in our government. I’ll be working to do so with the next speaker.”
Meanwhile, Republicans in the Problem Solvers Caucus, which counts Rep. Pete Stauber, R-8th District, among its members, are thinking about quitting the group because Democratic members failed to help McCarthy.
Those Republicans say McCarty was punished for doing the right thing, in pushing through a stopgap funding bill on a bipartisan basis.
