US Congressman Steve Scalise, a conservative who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, was chosen by the Republican Party to be the nominee for Speaker of the United States House of Representatives this Wednesday.
If he wins Thursday’s general election, he will fill the seat left vacant by the departure of fellow Republican Kevin McCarthy last week. Republicans in the US Congress.
The absence of an elected leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives — the first time in its 234-year history following a motion of impeachment — is significant because, according to chamber rules, only the Speaker (Dr. Speakeras the original name) has the power to implement legislative proposals, including already promised military aid to Israel, a new funding package for Ukraine, and a temporary budget deal that avoids the shutdown of various institutions and federal agencies. departments in the country.
After winning the internal election, Scalise must get at least 217 votes in the general election, with the participation of congressmen from both parties, this Wednesday against the Republican candidate supported by Donald Trump (Jim Jordan, a staunch supporter of the former president and founder of the far-right group in the House of Representatives).
The result of the internal polls (113 votes for Scalise and 99 for Jordan) indicates that Scalise will have great difficulty getting elected in the first round if the party insists on voting this Wednesday in the general election; In January, McCarthy won the internal vote 188-31 and was elected Speaker After 15 rounds of polling due to fierce internal opposition from radical factions.
After the general election was scheduled for Wednesday at 8 p.m. (3 p.m. in Washington), the Republican Party decided to suspend the session and postpone the vote so Republicans could work out their differences behind closed doors — and avoid a messy repeat election in January. .
“Steve Scalise got 113 votes. That’s a majority, but how do you convince the other 100 to vote for him?” asked Republican Congressman Troy Nehals, a Jordan supporter, referring to the general election. “Steve Scalise is a good guy, but his side only has 51% of the bench.”
As usual in elections Speaker In the U.S. House of Representatives, each party nominates a candidate—in the case of the minority Democratic Party, candidate Hakeem Jeffries, its caucus chairman.
Under normal circumstances, the candidate of the majority party would not have much difficulty winning (McCarthy was the only person not elected in the first round in the last 100 years); However, the current balance of power between the two parties (221-212, a narrow advantage for Republicans) forces Scalise to keep his bench united, with no congressional Democrats voting for him.
The Republican’s problem is that his bench is divided between the majority of the constituency that support him; a group on the right urging a vote for Jordan in the general election; And another group that still hasn’t gotten over last week’s events admits voting for McCarthy.
Both Scalise and Jordan are part of the most conservative wing of the Republican Party, both to the right of McCarthy. They all voted against certifying Biden’s victory in the 2020 election during a ceremony at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 that was interrupted by an invasion of Trump supporters.
First after the Capitol invasion, McCarthy – then the House Minority Leader – accused Trump of responsibility for the attack, before coming closer to the former US president a few weeks later.
He was at nine months SpeakerFrom January until last week, it became the target of a radical faction of the Republican Party, especially after reaching agreements with the White House and Democrats over the summer to increase the nation’s debt ceiling, and to avoid the shutdown of federal agencies and departments without a budget for 2024, a deal that must be renewed in September-mid-November.
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