WASHINGTON – U.S. House Republicans voted for Minnesota’s Tom Emmer as speaker on Tuesday after five rounds of voting – but Emmer dropped out of the race just four hours later after being attacked by the GOP’s most powerful figure, former President Donald Trump had been.
After defeating six candidates, Emmer, the No. 3 Republican, faced an uphill battle to unite more than 20 far-right Republican holdouts devoted to Trump, who warned on social media shortly after the vote that the election by Emmer “a tragedy” would be a mistake.”
“He has never respected the power of a Trump endorsement or the breadth and reach of MAGA,” Trump, also a 2024 presidential candidate, wrote of Emmer on his Truth Social website. “He’s completely out of touch with Republican voters.”
Emmer, 62, who represents a protected GOP district that includes parts of the western and northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, the city of St. Cloud and rural areas in between, was in camera Tuesday afternoon after voting at the conference continued to meet with objectors.
Emmer quickly left the meeting later Tuesday, chasing reporters who were following him. He declined to comment before getting into a black car. Lawmkers said he got out a low time later.
Without Emmer’s departure, Republicans will have to restart their nomination process. Another conference vote was scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern with a modern slate of candidates: Byron Donalds of Florida, Chuck Fleischmann and Mark Green of Tennessee, Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Roger Williams of Texas.
Emmer should have received almost all of the 221 Republican votes in the House since all Democrats are expected to vote for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. In the final secret ballot, Emmer received 117 GOP votes, far fewer than the 217 needed for the speaker’s gavel if all Republicans were present and voting.
In a roll call vote in conference, also behind closed doors, on whether a member would support him locally, Emmer’s support grew to 186, several lawmakers said at the meeting.
Several Republicans who left Tuesday’s session, including Reps. Steve Womack of Arkansas and Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, acknowledged that Emmer didn’t have the votes to become speaker but remained hopeful that Emmer would fill that void could.
Womack said Emmer could tell which Republicans were holding back because there was a roll call vote at the conference.
“I’m assuming that Tom wants to meet with the people who aren’t calling his name and see if there’s anything he can say or do that might get them to strengthen their required 217,” Womack said. “If he can’t do that, he has to make a decision about whether to go down.”
Womack added that there are some members who will always oppose Emmer, but he did not mention them by name.
“What I just saw in this room shows me that there are some people who are pretty entrenched and are not going to support the current commissioner,” he said.
Rick Allen of Georgia, for example, had already stated that he would never vote for Emmer because the Republican voted from Minnesota According to CNN, same-sex marriage should be codified.
Johnson said Emmer is working to turn these objectors around.
“People come forward with concerns and he addresses them directly,” Johnson said.
When asked how many members voted against Emmer in the roll-call vote, Florida Rep. Mike Waltz replied, “too many.”
Third GOP candidate
Emmer was the third Republican candidate for speaker.
The first, Steve Scalise from Louisiana never brought his nomination up for a floor vote and the second, Jim Jordan of Ohio, was thrown aside by the party after his third and final unsuccessful vote on the speaker’s gavel.
The House of Representatives has been without a speaker for 21 days.
Emmer, who serves as Republican leader in the GOP leadership, had the support of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy but would have had to court members and allies of the far-right House Freedom Caucus who are closely aligned with Trump.
On Monday, Emmer posted a video in which he said he has always “got along” with Trump, who is also the current GOP front-runner in the 2024 presidential election.
At a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Monday, Trump was asked if he would support Emmer. The former president said he “always got along with Emmer” but said he was trying to give House Republicans the opportunity to choose their own leader.
Emmer posted a video clip of the performance at XAs spokesman, he said he would continue the couple’s “strong working relationship.”
However, Trump had already posted about his opposition to emmer on his social media page on Tuesday.
Emmer was also one of the few candidates for speaker who voted to certify the 2020 election results.
The Speaker Campaign
As they tried again to choose a speaker Monday night, House Republicans heard proposals from eight of their colleagues who had filed by Sunday’s deadline. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania was also a candidate but dropped out midway through the race Closed candidate forum.
This GOP Legislators who ran for the speaker’s gavel included Reps. Gary Palmer from Alabama, Byron Donalds from FloridaAustin Scott from Georgia, Mike Johnson from Louisiana, Jack Bergman from MichiganKevin Hern from Oklahoma and Pete Sessions from Texas.
Scalise, the House majority leader, said early Tuesday that the goal is for Republicans to unite behind a nominee and resume legislative work that has stalled since McCarthy took office Ousted earlier this month.
“There is still a lot of work to be done,” Scalise said. “All of these are draft laws that we want to implement.”
Whoever becomes the speaker will be tasked with a quick approach November 17 deadline for government funding and an almost Request for $106 billion in additional aid from the White House for Ukraine, Israel and global aid and US border security. Emmer must also play a leading role in the adoption of mandatory laws such as the… annual defense bill and five years Reauthorization of the farm bill.
In addition to his legislative duties, the modern speaker must strike compelling deals with a Democrat-controlled White House and Senate while raising funds and protecting vulnerable Republicans and expanding the House’s slim GOP majority in the 2024 elections.
McCarthy said he wanted the party to overcome its deep fractures and that there must be “consequences” for the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to oust him.
“It’s frustrating because it’s just a few, these eight, who are working with all the Democrats to ruin the Republican reputation, but we’re going to take it back,” the California Republican said.
Five votes for Emmer
Republicans held five secret votes Tuesday to choose a nominee. Some candidates withdrew their names before voting to speed up the process, such as Palmer and Meuser.
The meetings were canceled in the first round of voting; Bergman in the second round; Scott in the third round; Hern in the fourth round; and Johnson in the fifth round. Donalds retired in the fourth round.
With Republicans struggling to rally behind a candidate, Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska asked all speaker candidates and Republican lawmakers to sign a unity pledge.
But there were clear signs of dissent.
In the first four rounds of secret voting, six MPs voted either for candidates present or for candidates other than those announced, raising concerns that a candidate might not be able to win the support of the majority of conference participants.
Bill Huizenga of Michigan said that as the final vote was underway, he sent a message to Republicans in attendance: “We have to sort this out.” Stop voting present, stop voting for other people. We have two candidates.”
One of the voters in attendance, Troy Nehls of Texas, said Emmer had no chance of becoming speaker and that as Republicans, “we’re back where we started.”
Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky said Emmer asked objectors to remain in the chamber after a roll call vote to discuss differences.
“When I left, there were several people at the microphone who had voted differently than Emmer,” he said.
Rep. Ann Wagner of Missouri said she hopes Emmer’s approach will restore trust in the conference.
“It’s really good because it also eliminates the feeling that there are some backroom deals going on or that people are, you know, getting their wish lists,” Wagner said, referring to one-on-one meetings with other speaker candidates.
In January, McCarthy made a secret handshake deal with far-right conservatives before winning the 15th ballot.
Florida’s Mario Díaz-Balart said that while Donalds was his first choice, he wanted to unite around Emmer, whom he described as “honorable.”
As a whip, “he has the relationships. If he doesn’t manage to get things together, we’re in for a very, very challenging time,” he said.
House Democrats continued to criticize the GOP on Tuesday.
“Chaos and dysfunction continue to be the order of the day in the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Today is the 21st day without a speaker, and the other side is back to square one,” Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar said at a news conference.
Emmer finances, fundraising
Emmer is known in Congress as a cryptocurrency advocate and his own finances are remarkably established, according to personal financial reports required of members of Congress.
In its most recent annual report, filed in May, Emmer listed just one asset, an investment account worth between $15,000 and $50,000, and one liability, a mortgage between $100,000 and $250,000.
He did not list stock holdings, transactions, gifts or other finances – a rarity for financial disclosures in Congress often more complicated.
As a former House Republican campaign manager, Emmer was a prolific fundraiser. He has raised millions from the cryptocurrency sector and promoted the technology in the House of Representatives, where he sits on the Financial Services Committee.
He raised $2 million in the 2022 cycle for the National Republican Congressional Committee from the political action committee of Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX, a crypto company that went bankrupt after sedate fraud allegations.
Immediately after this scandal, Emmer maintained that the FTX example should not undermine the promise of the cryptocurrency itself.
For the current campaign cycle, Emmer has raised a total of $3.7 million for his own campaign and for his leadership PAC. He has raised $230,000 from donors in the securities and investment industries — more than any other industry except the “retirement industry,” according to the nonprofit campaign spending tracking group Open Secrets.
