House GOP Races to Fill House Speakership Amid Israel–Hamas Conflict

Candidates for House speaker pledge support for Israel, but their words lack force until one gains 217 votes among the deeply divided Republican majority.

Homeland Security Committee (L-R) Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) hold a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on April 27, 2023. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

House Republicans will attempt to elect a new speaker this week, a task that’s already complicated by deep divisions within the GOP caucus and made urgent as Israel, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, is suddenly engulfed in what promises to be a bloody and protracted war.

The two declared candidates for the speakership, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, have made statements in support of Israel.