Republican candidate Steve Scalise for president of the US House of Representatives has withdrawn his candidacy. Scalise said this in the US Congress on Thursday night (local time), after failing to secure enough support within his own group. The latter had already nominated him for the influential post, but he would likely have been denied a majority in the House of Congress due to several dissidents within his own ranks.
“There are still some people who have their own agenda,” Scalise said after a meeting of his caucus. There are differences of opinion that need to be resolved. Scalise warned: “This House of Representatives needs a leader.” The president of the Chamber of Deputies occupies third place in the state ranking, after the president and his vice-president.
Scalise was chosen as the candidate by his group behind closed doors on Wednesday – but the vote was extremely close. The ultra-conservative politician prevailed 113 votes to 99 against his party rival, Jim Jordan, who is considered a loyalist to former US President Donald Trump.
The previous leader, Kevin McCarthy, was eliminated as leader of the House of Representatives in a historic vote last week. Radical Republicans kicked him out of office. It was the first time in US history that a speaker of the House of Representatives lost his position in this way. The drama largely paralyzed the US Parliament.
US Republicans only have a slim majority in the House of Representatives, so dissident Republicans have a powerful hold on their hands when it comes to voting – even if there are just a few of them. The party currently has 221 deputies in the House of Parliament. 217 votes are needed to be elected president. Therefore Scalise could only have had four dissenters in his group. He could not have counted on the votes of US President Joe Biden’s Democrats. After his election as a candidate, about a dozen Republicans announced that they would deny Scalise a vote for president.
The 58-year-old Louisiana representative currently leads the Republican caucus in the House. He is currently being treated for blood cancer. Many initially had doubts that he would be available for the role. However, he was the second candidate, alongside Jordan, to announce he would enter the presidential race after McCarthy was eliminated.
Scalise has a strongly conservative profile, agitating against abortion and same-sex marriage. He also speaks out against stricter gun laws, doubts scientifically proven climate change and supported Trump’s entry ban on people from Islamic countries. Scalise also made headlines in 2002 with a speech to a white supremacist group, for which he later apologized. Yet even he is seen by some of the party’s hardliners as part of the political establishment in Washington that they reject.