After several rounds of voting on Tuesday, Republicans have selected a candidate for speaker of the House of Representatives.
Those initially on the ballot were Jack Bergman of Michigan, Byron Donalds of Florida, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Austin Scott of Georgia, and Pete Sessions of Texas.
Emmer won the Republican speaker nomination on Tuesday.
“There’s only one person who can do it all the way,” joked former President Donald Trump of the speaker race. “Jesus Christ. If Jesus came down and said, ‘I want to be Speaker,’ He would do it. Other than that, I haven’t seen anybody who can guarantee it.”
Over the weekend, Mike Flood of Nebraska unveiled a “Unity Pledge” intended to rally Republicans to support the eventual designated speaker. That pledge emphasizes the importance of speedily electing a speaker “in order to return to work on behalf of the American people.”
“Electing the next Speaker of the House will require unity from House Republicans,” Flood said in a statement. “This pledge is a new effort to help our conference put our differences aside and come together. I’m urging all my colleagues to join this pledge so we can move forward with electing a Speaker and get on with the people’s business.”
All of the candidates signed the pledge.
On Monday evening at 6:30 p.m., Republicans held a closed-door meeting in the Longworth House Office Building where they listened to two-minute speeches from the candidates. In these speeches, each candidate laid out his platform for why he would be the best choice for speaker.
On Tuesday, House Republicans voted for their speaker candidate in a series of secret ballots. The last round was between Emmer and Johnson.
Over the past week, Republicans underwent three rounds of voting on Jim Jordan of Ohio for speaker. Jordan lost all three rounds, and on Friday afternoon, House Republicans voted to remove him as the nominee for speaker.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had won the speaker position in January after 15 rounds of voting. The House ousted him from his leadership position on Oct. 3. Steve Scalise had won the Republican conference vote for nomination of the speaker over Jordan in early October, but he dropped out after a flurry of Republicans said they would not vote for him.
“This House of Representatives needs a speaker, and we need to open up the House again. But clearly, not everybody is there,” Scalise said at the time, Fox News reported. “And they’re still schisms that have to get resolved. I never came here for a title I’ve had some great titles. I’m the Majority Leader of the House, and I love the job I have.”
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