Draft:Republican Nomination for the October 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election

Following the successful motion to vacate the speakership of Kevin McCarthy of California on October 3, 2023, the House Republican Conference began a process to nominate McCarthy's replacement for the speakership.

Steve Scalise of Louisiana was nominated by an internal conference vote on October 11, but he withdrew from the race the next day. Jim Jordan of Ohio was nominated on October 13. However on October 20, after Jordan failed to win the speakership on the House floor in the third round of voting, the conference met and voted to remove Jordan as the conference's nominee. On October 24, the conference nominated Tom Emmer of Minnesota, but he dropped out the same day following opposition from hardliners.

Process
The House Republican Conference votes for its Speaker nominee through a secret ballot where members do not know who other members have voted for. To win the nomination, a member must win a majority of votes cast. If there are more than two candidates, and one does not recieve the majority of votes cast, the candidate with the least amount of votes is dropped from the ballot. Members are also allowed to vote present or vote for a write-in candidate.

Overview
After the speakership was vacated on October 3, a number of different candidates for the Republican nomination indicated interest including Jim Jordan of Ohio, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, and former President Donald Trump. On October 4, Jordan and Scalise announced their candidacies. That same day, Troy Nehls of Texas announced that he would nominate Trump for speaker. Trump publicly considered running for the position, even weighing a visit to the Capitol to gather support for his bid. On the evening of October 5, Trump announced in a post on Truth Social that he would not run for speaker and instead would endorse Jim Jordan.

On Friday, October 6, it was reported that a televised debate was planned to be hosted by Bret Baier of Fox News between Scalise, Jordan and Kevin Hern of Oklahoma on the following Monday. However, several Republican representatives criticized the planned debate as a "circus". In response, Scalise, Jordan and Hern each announced they would not participate, and the event was cancelled.

On Wednesday, October 11, Steve Scalise was nominated as McCarthy's replacement by the House Republican Conference. Scalise defeated Jim Jordan in a 113–99 vote. Scalise withdrew from the race the next day when it became clear that he would not gain the 217 votes needed to be elected speaker. On October 13, Jim Jordan was nominated by the House Republican Conference after defeating Austin Scott in a 124–81 vote. Immediately after, the conference had a validation vote to see if Representatives would vote for Jordan on the floor. In the vote, Jordan received 152 votes, well below the 217 votes needed to become speaker.

During the four days between the Republican conference vote and the first floor vote on Tuesday, October 17, many influential Republicans who have opposed Jordan, such as Mike Rogers, Ann Wagner, and Ken Calvert, flipped to supporting him. Many previous holdouts changed their support to Jordan as he agreed to link funding for aid to Ukraine and Israel in their respective wars.

To build support for his candidacy, lawmakers and activists allied with Jordan took to interviews and social media to pressure Republicans to back Jordan. Several Republicans reported receiving threatening phone calls and text messages after voting against Jordan on the House floor. Jordan called for a stop to such threatening activities.

After over 20 Republicans opposed Jordan on three straight speaker votes, the Republican conference voted to remove Jordan as the nominee.

Scalise nomination
The first House Republican Conference vote was held on October 11, 2023. Prior to the vote, House Republicans tabled (killed) a motion from Representative Chip Roy that would have required the Republican nominee to receive 217 votes, instead of a simple majority, to become the nominee. Despite a challenge from Jordan, Scalise won the majority of votes, becoming the Republican nominee for speaker of the House. Only 212 out of 224 conference members cast a vote for either Scalise or Jordan. In an interview released shortly after the vote, Ken Buck claimed that he had voted present, as he was not satisfied with either candidate. Representative Cory Mills missed the vote because he was in Israel helping to evacuate Americans impacted by the 2023 Israel–Hamas war.

Minutes after the meeting concluded, representatives Lauren Boebert, Bob Good, Nancy Mace, Max Miller, Barry Moore, and Lloyd Smucker said that they would continue to vote for Jordan on the House floor. Representative Carlos Gimenez said he would vote for Kevin McCarthy on the floor unless McCarthy told him otherwise. These defections were unexpected since abiding by the results of an internal nominee selection was "historically a given". With not enough votes to elect Scalise speaker on the House floor, Republicans decided to postpone the floor vote, which had been scheduled to be held that afternoon. On October 12, after another postponement of the floor vote, Scalise withdrew his candidacy.

Declined to run

 * Ken Buck (CO's 4th congressional district)
 * Tom Cole (OK's 4th congressional district), Chair of the House Rules Committee
 * Byron Donalds (FL's 19th congressional district) (endorsed Jordan)
 * Tom Emmer (MN's 6th congressional district), House Majority Whip (endorsed Scalise)
 * Matt Gaetz (FL's 1st congressional district)
 * Garret Graves (LA's 6th congressional district), Chair of the Elected Leadership Committee
 * Mark Green (TN's 7th congressional district), Chair of the Homeland Security Committee (endorsed Jordan)
 * Kevin Hern (OK's 1st congressional district), Chair of the Republican Study Committee
 * Kevin McCarthy (CA's 20th congressional district), former Speaker of the House and leader of the House Republican Conference
 * Chip Roy (TX's 21st congressional district) (endorsed Jordan)
 * Elise Stefanik (NY's 21st congressional district), Chair of the House Republican Conference
 * Donald Trump, former President of the United States (2017–2021) (endorsed Jordan)

Endorsements
[[File:October 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election Republican endorsements.svg|thumb|center|upright=2|Endorsements by incumbent Republicans in the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]]. (Seats not held by Republicans in dark grey).

{{Legend|#D35FBC|Jim Jordan (48)}}{{Legend|#45D3D3|Kevin McCarthy (7) (Not running)}}{{Legend|#FCCC00|Steve Scalise (34)}}{{Legend|#3737C8|Donald Trump (1) (Not running)}}]]

Jordan nomination
The second House Republican Conference vote was held on October 13, 2023. After losing to Steve Scalise in the first vote held on October 11, Jim Jordan won the majority of the votes, becoming the Republican nominee for speaker of the House, despite a late challenge from Austin Scott. Seven members of the conference cast a ballot for someone other than Jordan or Scott, and one member voted present. Mike Johnson also considered running, but decided not to, and endorsed Jordan instead.

Immediately after the second vote, the House Republican Conference held a validation vote asking representatives whether they would support Jordan on the floor. 152 voted yes, while 55 voted no. One member voted present. On October 20, after three unsuccessful ballots, the Conference reconvened and held a vote to either keep Jordan as the party's nominee, or to remove him and select a third nominee. 112 voted to remove Jordan, while 86 voted to keep him.

Emmer nomination
House Republicans held a candidate forum for nominee candidates on October 23. Each member running for Speaker signed a pledge to support the eventual nominee. They met October 24, to pick a new speaker nominee from a field of seven candidates (originally nine). The voting took place behind closed doors via secret ballot. The candidate receiving the fewest votes in each round was eliminated. Voting continued until the fifth ballot at which point Emmer received a majority of the vote over Rep. Mike Johnson.

Immediately after the election, the conference held a roll-call vote, where 25 members indicated that they would vote for someone other than Emmer on the House floor or vote present.

After the roll-call vote, former president Donald Trump stated on Truth Social that he opposed Emmer’s bid for speaker. Four hours after Emmer was nominated, he withdrew from the Speaker race after it became clear that he could not get 217 votes on the House floor.

Withdrew before vote

 * Dan Meuser (PA 9)
 * Gary Palmer (AL 6), Chair of the House Republican Policy Committee

Declined

 * Jodey Arrington (TX's 19th congressional district), Chair of the House Budget Committee
 * Tom Cole (OK's 4th congressional district), Chair of the House Rules Committee
 * Brian Fitzpatrick (PA 1), Co-Chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus
 * Mark Green (TN's 7th congressional district), Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee
 * Kevin McCarthy (CA's 20th congressional district), former Speaker of the House and leader of the House Republican Conference (endorsed Emmer)
 * Steve Scalise (LA's 1st congressional district), House Majority Leader
 * Roger Williams (TX's 25th congressional district), Chair of the House Small Business Committee

Fourth Nomination
Following Emmer’s dropout, the Republican conference moved to find another speaker nominee.