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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHouse Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., talks to reporters as he leaves Republicans\u2019 closed-door forum in which they heard from the candidates for House speaker on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jose Luis Magana\/AP<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Republicans have chosen Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., to be their nominee for House speaker in a closed-door, secret-ballot election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scalise defeated House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, by a vote of 113-99. That gave Scalise a narrow majority of the Republicans\u2019 221 votes <\/strong>in the chamber, but he has yet to lock up the 217 votes necessary to win on the House floor. A source with direct knowledge of the matter said Jordan plans to vote for Scalise on the House floor and is encouraging his colleagues to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n But it\u2019s not clear when Republicans will take the nomination to the floor or whether the conference will unify around Scalise. After the vote Wednesday morning, Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, said the race was \u201cnot over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m still throwing my support behind Jim Jordan for House speaker,\u201d Miller told reporters. \u201cI am not going to change my vote now or anytime soon on the House floor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a razor-thin majority, a small number of defectors could hold up Scalise\u2019s nomination, as they did with Rep. Kevin McCarthy\u2019s nomination in January. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said she would not vote for Scalise, citing his current fight with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI like Steve Scalise, and I like him so much that I want to see him defeat cancer more than sacrifice his health in the most difficult position in Congress,\u201d Greene wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., also wrote on social media that Scalise has not secured his vote \u201cbecause he has not articulated a viable plan for avoiding an omnibus\u201d spending bill. Current government funding expires on Nov. 17, so averting a shutdown and passing long-term funding bills will be a pressing matter for whoever is elected House speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, said he voted for Jordan in the closed conference meeting but will support Scalise on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe need to get back to work,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cWe took the vote, and Steve Scalise is our nominee. \u2026 It was close, but that\u2019s the way elections go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republicans seem determined to avoid a protracted public fight, like the 15 rounds of voting it took McCarthy to secure the gavel in January. Scalise met with several holdouts Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe message was, let\u2019s make sure we\u2019re united before we go to the floor,\u201d Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., said after the conference vote. \u201cAnd now we have work to do to make sure that the people that didn\u2019t vote for Steve Scalise do so on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scalise, 58, was elected in 2008 in a special election to replace Bobby Jindal, who had just been elected governor of Louisiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The former systems engineer got his start in politics at Louisiana State University, where he was twice elected speaker of LSU\u2019s student government association. He served as a member of the Louisiana State Legislature for 12 years before being elected to the U.S. House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The turning point in his career<\/a> was a 2012 win that made him chairman of the influential Republican Study Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As House majority whip in 2017, Scalise was shot by a gunman in Alexandria, Va., as he was playing second base, his normal position on the congressional baseball team. The incident led to a long road to recovery: Scalise underwent multiple surgeries and blood transfusions after the bullet that struck his left hip traveled across his pelvis, fracturing bones, injuring internal organs and causing severe bleeding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In August of this year, Scalise said he\u2019d been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a \u201cvery treatable blood cancer\u201d for which he has begun treatment. \u201cI have now begun treatment, which will continue for the next several months,\u201d he said on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the House majority leader\u2019s position becomes vacant, Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the majority whip, and Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma are in the running for that position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 Claudia Grisales contributed to this story.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Contributed by Michael Kelly, H.W.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Updated October 11, 2023 6:39 PM ET (NPR.org) By Susan Davis, Deirdre Walsh, Lexie Schapitl House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., talks to reporters as he leaves Republicans\u2019 closed-door forum in which they heard from the candidates for House speaker on Tuesday. Jose Luis Magana\/AP Republicans have chosen Majority Leader Steve Scalise,… Continue reading POLITICS<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Consensus remains elusive as Republicans try to elect a House speaker<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
New speaker, same math<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Who is Steve Scalise?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n