Steve Scalise on Capitol Hill in Washington in June 2023 (AP Photo/ J. Scott Applewhite)
Republican Party lawmakers have chosen Steve Scalise as their nominee for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to replace Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted in a no-confidence motion last week. Scalise is 58 years old, he is a congressman from Louisiana and during a closed session of the Republican caucuses he received 113 votes against 99 for Jim Jordan, congressman from Ohio, the other candidate.
Now Scalise’s nomination must be approved by the House of Representatives, where Republicans have the majority (221 seats to Democrats’ 212 seats). To be elected, Scalise must achieve a majority of at least 217 votes when all representatives are present. The Democrats, on the other hand, support their group leader Hakeem Jeffries, who challenged McCarthy in January but did not receive the necessary votes.
Last week, the House of Representatives approved a no-confidence motion to remove McCarthy, a longtime member of the Republican Party, from office. The motion to censure him was introduced by another Republican congressman, Matt Gaetz, who said McCarthy had made too many concessions to Democrats in negotiations to avoid the shutdown, the partial cessation of federal government activities. Gaetz has announced that he is supporting Scalise.
At the start of 2023, the election of the Speaker of the House of Representatives caused a major headache for Republicans as they could not agree on the choice of a candidate. McCarthy was ultimately elected on the 15th ballot, after a stalemate not seen since 1859. McCarthy’s current interim spokesman is Patrick McHenry, a Republican congressman from North Carolina who has served since 2009.
– Also read: The Identity Crisis of American Republicans
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