The House Republican caucus tomorrow morning will vote on a new House Speaker before bringing the vote out to the entire House floor. The vote in the caucus will be a secret ballot.
Some Republicans think they may be able to get to a floor vote tomorrow and some are less optimistic.
Here’s more via Fox News:
House Republicans met behind closed doors for over two hours on Tuesday night to hear from Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as they made their final pitches to be elected the next speaker.
The caucus will gather again Wednesday morning for a closed-door vote to pick their candidate before nominating them on the House floor.
Some GOP lawmakers appeared optimistic in getting a new speaker by the end of the week, while others suggested it would be a drawn-out process.
“I don’t know that there’s going to be a speaker tomorrow morning. We’re gonna find out. I think it’s 50/50 odds right now,” Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., told reporters after the meeting.
Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital it will be “very difficult” for the conference to reach a consensus on Wednesday morning.
“I think it’s going to take more than one day to get this done. I kind of wish we had started this process earlier today and done a couple rounds of votes,” Murphy said. “It was a good evening. I mean, a lot of people ask some good, pointed questions. Good discussion. We’ll see. I think, honestly, I think it’d be pretty split almost even.”
Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., similarly doubted a speaker would be selected this week. She said she asked the candidates about whether any “back room deals” were being made in exchange for support in an allusion to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s rocky election in January.
“The number one question that I posed to the candidates today was, for 10 months, we have been hearing of nothing but backroom deals and promises that have been made and then supposedly broken,” she said.
“So my question to the candidates, has someone come to you with a request in exchange for a vote? And if so, what was it? And only one candidate came out point-blank and said that they have told people, come with requests, that they will not honor requests… I think that’s very telling.”
She said that candidate was Jordan.
But others were more optimistic. House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital that “the mood in the room” was “very cordial” when asked why he believed the GOP will select a speaker on Wednesday.
“Both of them did a great job. Of course, I’m for Jordan. But it’s very encouraging,” Norman said, adding that he would vote for Scalise if the majority fell that way.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., who is supporting Jordan, said she would also vote for whichever of the two candidates was chosen.
If we learned anything from the votes in January, this isn’t going to happen tomorrow. I’d be shocked if we could even make it happen this week, especially after Gaetz upended it last week.
They will need at the very least a simple majority to get the vote from the caucus to the floor. They will consider a rule change which would take that up to 217 votes tomorrow morning.