In the turbulent race for president of the US House of Representatives, Republicans narrowly chose hard-liner Jim Jordan as their new candidate in an internal election. According to consistent US media reports, former President Donald Trump’s confidant received 124 votes in voting at the closed-door parliamentary group meeting on Friday. However, 55 Republicans announced that they would not support him in the general election. His freestyle is therefore uncertain.
To actually become president of the Chamber of Representatives, he would need the votes of an absolute majority, that is, 217 deputies, in a vote in a plenary session. If, as expected, he is unanimously rejected by the 213 Democrats, at most four of the 222 Republicans in the Senate are likely to vote against him. In a test vote among Republicans, however, only 152 deputies declared that they would support him in a plenary session vote, 55 voted against the staunch conservative and one person abstained.
The opposing candidate in the internal Republican vote was the practically unknown Austin Scott, from Georgia, who surprisingly declared his candidacy. He came out of the gate with 81 votes in the poll.
Previous Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy became the first speaker of the US Congress in US history to be voted out last week. Initially, the party had chosen right-wing conservative Steve Scalise as a possible successor for the third most important position in the state, after president and vice president, but as he also did not obtain the necessary majority, he withdrew his candidacy on Thursday night. . .
It is unclear when the House of Representatives vote on the presidency will take place and whether Republicans will find a candidate with a majority by then. As long as the House remains leaderless, observers say a vote on aid packages for the military conflicts in Ukraine and Israel is unlikely.