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Eight candidates still standing for 9am ET vote after Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania dropped out
Good morning, US politics blog readers. It’s now been three weeks to the day since rightwing Republicans and Democrats forced out Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House, and the chamber’s GOP majority still hasn’t been able to find a replacement. The party is riven with factionalism and grievance, and two of their nominees for the post, Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan, have dropped out in the face of opposition they realized was unyielding.
This morning at 9am eastern time, the House Republican Conference is expected to begin voting on who should be their latest nominee for speaker. There are now eight candidates running after Pennsylvania lawmaker Dan Meuser quit the race yesterday, but there’s no telling if any of them can get the 217 votes necessary to win a floor vote. Tom Emmer, the third-highest-ranking Republican in the House, appears to be a frontrunner, but he’s unpopular with Donald Trump’s acolytes, and that may be enough to sink him. Other candidates to watch are Florida’s Byron Donalds, who is Trump-aligned, relatively inexperienced, and would be the first Black speaker, and Oklahoma’s Kevin Hern, who leads the large and influential Republican Study Committee. The vote is being held behind closed doors, but the House GOP is a leaky bunch, and we’ll let you know what we hear.
Joe Biden will this evening at 6pm ET welcome Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese to the White House.
Republican presidential aspirants are campaigning with vigor, with Tim Scott shaking hands at a variety of places in Iowa, Vivek Ramaswamy addressing the conservative Hudson Institute in Washington DC and Ron DeSantis holding a town hall with New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu.
Israel says it is “ready and determined” to continue its war against Hamas, as the death toll in the enclave hit 5,700. Follow our live blog for the latest on the conflict.
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