House Majority Whip Tom Emmer has already dropped out of the race for speaker roughly four hours after he was officially nominated for the post, a source familiar with the matter tells National Review. The Minnesota Republican’s decision to bow out of the race comes after more than two dozen holdouts — and former President Donald Trump — expressed opposition to his bid.
House Republicans are expected to convene behind closed doors for yet another candidate forum on Capitol Hill at 6 p.m. Members expect that House GOP conference vice chairman Mike Johnson, who came in second behind Emmer earlier today, will make another run for the gavel momentarily, though others are expected to throw their hats in the ring, too.
Update: 5:55 P.M.
House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik confirmed in a social media post that six candidates formally declared they are running for speaker after Emmer’s short-lived bid. The candidates who filed ahead of the House GOP’s 5:30 P.M. deadline include: Byron Donalds of Florida, Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee, Mark Green of Tennessee, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, and Roger Williams of Texas.
House Republicans are convening behind closed doors for another candidate forum.
Update: 6:30 P.M.
Hern has already dropped out of the race for speaker and is endorsing Johnson. That means five candidates are currently in the running for speaker.
Update: 7:40 P.M.
The second candidate forum of today has just concluded. After leaving the closed-door conference meeting, Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee told reporters it’s his understanding that the House GOP will reconvene at 8 P.M. to begin voting on this round of candidates. Burchett added that once the race whittles down to one candidate, the House GOP will hold a roll call vote of acclamation tomorrow morning to see whether that person can get to 217 in conference before a floor vote.
Update: 9:10 P.M.
The first round of counting is complete and the vote total is as follows, first reported by Punchbowl News.
Johnson – 85
Donalds – 32
Green – 23
Williams – 21
Fleischmann – 10
Other – 31
Present – 2
Fleischmann came in last, meaning he is now out of the running. Perhaps the most striking takeaway from this round of counting are the 33 members who decided to vote either “present” or for someone who is not a declared candidate. With these margins, it’s hard to see how any future speaker designee can come close to 217 anytime soon.
Update: 10 P.M.
The last secret-ballot round of counting is complete. Mike Johnson of Louisiana came in first with 128 votes, meaning he is now the House GOP’s newest speaker designate (and second speaker nominee of the day after Emmer’s four-hour stint in the spotlight.) Johnson beat second-place finisher Byron Donalds of Florida, who won 29 votes.
But getting to 217 is still an uphill climb. More than 44 members voted “other” in this head-to-head match between Johnson and Donalds, according to early reports. Forty-three of those “other” votes reportedly went to McCarthy.
Update: 10:30 P.M.
Johnson tells reporters the House will vote on the floor on Wednesday.
This is a developing story . . .