There’s a new crop of candidates for Speaker of the House. Wisconsin 6th District Republican Glenn Grothman sets the scene for Monday evening.
“All the Republicans in the House of Representatives are going to get together. We’re going to hear nominating speeches from whoever declares and wants to be speaker at that time. And then we’ll have a variety of votes.”
There are nine declared candidates, and Grothman prefers two.
“Well I’ll support whoever winds up winning on the floor. The two I think are most qualified to those running are Tom Emmer from Minnesota and Mike Johnson from Louisiana.”
A vote on a finalist could come as soon as Tuesday morning. The Speaker’s chair has now been empty for more than two weeks after Kevin McCarthy was forced out, bringing the work of the House to a halt.
Democrats are waiting for Republicans to sort out their leadership issues. That’s the message from Second District Representative Mark Pocan who said he hasn’t even met some of the potential new Speaker candidates.
“Many good people on the Republican side don’t even want to run for the job, because it’s pretty dysfunctional. It’s pretty much a mess.”
Pocan said Democrats have offered their help to pick a Speaker, but only if concessions are made to the Democratic caucus. So far, Pocan said Republicans haven’t taken the offer.