House GOP nixes plan designed to avoid another messy speaker vote

House Republicans on Wednesday nixed an internal rules change that would have helped ensure whoever wins their speaker nod has the support needed to prevail on the floor.

Republicans voted 135-88 to table a proposal from Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) to require 217 of the 221 House Republicans to agree on their next leader before any speakership vote on the floor, where Democrats are set to remain united in support of Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) are vying for the GOP’s nod in a race that could be resolved Wednesday — though many expect it could drag on longer. The vote on Roy’s proposal was seen as a test of Scalise’s support, because his allies came to view the rules change as a covert effort to block him from becoming the conference’s nominee.

After Kevin McCarthy struggled through 15 ballots before winning the speakership in January, Republicans began discussing the idea of changing their internal rules for tapping candidates to claim the top gavel. Advocates of the new standard argued that it would have saved House Republicans from another high-profile failure to unite behind a leader.

The tabling of the Roy proposal was confirmed by three people with knowledge of the vote. Some GOP lawmakers said privately that they supported the idea, but disagreed with how Roy’s measure was written.

Its rejection means that whoever lands the House GOP’s internal nomination will likely face a scramble to secure the needed votes before heading to the floor — or even during the floor proceedings, depending on when Republicans attempt to hold a speaker vote by the full chamber.

Importantly, Republicans are not all on the same page about whether to support the ultimate winner of the Scalise-Jordan contest, regardless of who their initial choice might have been.

Roy has endorsed Jordan for speaker, but neither Scalise nor the House Judiciary chief has secured the 217 votes needed to win the top gavel on the floor. Pending a resolution of that matter, some senior House Republicans have begun discussing contingency plans designed to empower Acting Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) to represent them in talks on the Nov. 17 government shutdown deadline, as well as potential foreign aid packages for both Israel and Ukraine.

The House GOP’s internal balloting moved from debate on Roy’s proposal to the first ballot for its speaker nominee, though it’s not clear that either Scalise or Jordan can prevail in that initial round. If one candidate fails to get a majority of the voting conference members on the first round, more rounds of balloting will follow.