Georgia Congressman throws hat in ring to be next Speaker of the House

ATLANTA — U.S. Rep. Austin Scott says he is throwing his hat in the ring to be the next Speaker of the House.

Scott tweeted the news on Friday, saying “I want to lead a House that functions in the best interest of the American people.”

The news comes a little more than a week after the unprecedented ousting of Kevin McCarthy.

As the House nears a second week stuck on pause, Republicans struggle to unite around a candidate, with many lawmakers are growing antsy.

Rep. Steve Scalise was voted in a nominee for House Speaker earlier this week, but abruptly ended his bid Thursday when it became clear hardline holdouts refused to back him.

Rep. Jim Jordan has also announced that he is running for the spot, but not all Republicans want to see Jordan as speaker.

Overwhelmed and exhausted, anxious GOP lawmakers worry their House majority is being frittered away to countless rounds of infighting over rules, personalities and direction of the GOP.

“Someone said ‘You know, you could put Jesus Christ up for Speaker of the House, and he still wouldn’t get 217,” said Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., about the number needed to win a floor vote.

Next steps are uncertain as the House is essentially closed while the Republican majority tries to elect a speaker after ousting Kevin McCarthy from the job.

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Jordan and his backers instantly revived calls for party members to get behind the Ohio Republican.

“Make him the speaker. Do it tonight,” said Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind. “He’s the only one who can unite our party.”

Jordan also received an important nod Friday from the Republican party’s campaign chairman, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., who made an attempt to unify the fighting factions.

With the House narrowly split 221-212, with two vacancies, any nominee can lose just a few Republicans before they fail to reach the 217 majority needed in the face of opposition from Democrats who will most certainly back their own leader, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. Absences heading into the weekend could lower the majority threshold needed.

“Removing Speaker Kevin McCarthy was a mistake,” Hudson wrote on social media, saying the party finds itself at a crossroads also blocking Scalise. “We must unite around one leader.”

The House is entering its second week without a speaker and is essentially unable to function during a time of turmoil in the U.S. and wars overseas. The political pressure increasingly is on Republicans to reverse course, reassert majority control and govern in Congress.

The situation is not fully different from the start of the year, when McCarthy faced a similar backlash from a different group of far-right holdouts who ultimately gave their votes to elect him speaker, then engineered his historic downfall.

But the math this time is even more daunting, and the problematic political dynamic only worsening.

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