WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday are holding closed-door votes as they try to pick a new speaker, with five members of the caucus seeking the role.
Here are the current candidates seeking to take the job that has been vacant since Oct. 3, bringing all legislative action in the House to a halt:
IN: TOM EMMER
Emmer, the House’s No. 3 Republican and chief vote counter, has won the endorsement of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whose ouster by hardline party members set off the current crisis. A former ice hockey coach from Minnesota, Emmer said in a social media post on Saturday that he was running “to bring our conference together and get back to work.”
IN: MIKE JOHNSON
Johnson, a conservative constitutional law attorney from Louisiana, has been a member since 2017. He said in a letter to colleagues on Saturday that he was running as a consensus candidate and billed himself as a “team player and a bridge-builder.”
IN: BYRON DONALDS
Donalds, a Republican from Florida and member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, announced his candidacy in a statement late on Friday. During the votes last week on Jordan’s speaker bid, two members backed Donalds on the House floor, although he was not an announced candidate. He also netted as many as 20 votes on the House floor in January during McCarthy’s bruising attempt to secure the gavel.
IN: KEVIN HERN
Hern, from Oklahoma, is chair of the Republican Study Committee, a conservative policy group. He garnered as many as seven votes on the House floor during the speaker election in January.
IN: AUSTIN SCOTT
Scott is a Georgia lawmaker who has kept a relatively low profile in his 12 years in Congress. He challenged Jim Jordan for the nomination on Oct. 13, but failed in a 124-81 vote.
OUT: JACK BERGMAN
Bergman, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general who has been in Congress since 2017, was eliminated in a second round of voting on Tuesday.
OUT: PETE SESSIONS
Sessions was one of the more experienced candidates, having chaired the powerful House Rules Committee and headed the House Republican’s campaign arm. He was eliminated in the first round of voting on Tuesday.
OUT: GARY PALMER
Palmer, an outspoken defender of former President Donald Trump, was elected to Congress in 2014. The chair of the House Republican Policy Committee, whose goal is to unite congressional Republicans, dropped out on Tuesday.
OUT: DAN MEUSER
Meuser, who is from Pennsylvania and has been in the House for four years, dropped out on Monday.
(Compiled by Katharine Jackson, David Morgan, Diane Bartz, Andy Sullivan, Makini Brice, Moira Warburton and David Ljunggren; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell, David Gregorio and Jonathan Oatis)
