Third US House speaker nominee Tom Emmer drops out amid Republican infighting
- The lawmaker abandoned his bid just hours after securing the nomination over five rounds of voting
- House Republicans have already rejected nominees Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan, leaving the chamber leaderless after Kevin McCarthy’s ousting
US congressman Tom Emmer abandoned his bid to lead the House of Representatives on Tuesday, just hours after his fellow Republicans nominated him, continuing the party infighting that has paralysed Congress for more than three weeks, a Republican aide said.
Emmer, who serves as the No 3 Republican in the House, secured the nomination after five rounds of voting but appeared to be at least 20 votes short of the 217 he would need to win the speaker’s gavel, lawmakers said.
He abruptly left an afternoon meeting to press his case and walked past reporters and out of the building without answering questions.
The party’s third pick for the job – the fourth including ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy – found himself in the same precarious spot that doomed the previous candidates: seeking to win over a small group of holdouts from his own party that would have the power to doom his prospects.
“I hope we can find a different choice,” said Jim Banks, one of the members who stated he would oppose Emmer in a floor vote. “Tom Emmer’s not a conservative.”