Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested a female speaker for the House so that the candidate could unite the divided Republicans as the GOP has been struggling to find a new speaker, leaving the House three weeks without a leader.
“I wish they had a woman candidate out of all the candidates they’ve got running,” Mr. Gingrich said during a Fox News Sunday’s interview on Oct. 22.
“Somebody like Elise Stefanik or Beth Van Duyne, who had been a mayor of a city before becoming a congresswoman,” the former House speaker recommended.
As Mr. Gingrich raised his concern that a minority of the GOP group could create the same mess after multiple rounds of votes, he argued that Republicans “need to pick somebody to get stability” to avoid such chaos in the House GOP conference.
“In some ways, given the level of rowdiness and the level of juvenile behavior, it’s conceivable that a female speaker would be more effective in actually getting them all to get together and stick together,” Mr. Gingrich said.
Mr. Gingrich said the eight Republicans who ousted then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) “unleashed furies” that “they'd even dreamed of” in GOP conference.
Nearly three weeks ago, in an unprecedented move, eight Republicans, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), joined by all House Democrats and voted to oust then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), marking the first time that a House speaker has been removed from the position.
Since then, several Republicans have been seeking to secure the speaker’s gavel, but GOP infighting has prevented those candidates from getting near the 217 votes needed for the speakership.
The first two candidates were House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Mr. Scalise first defeated Mr. Jordan to gain the GOP’s support, but he soon withdrew from the race because he could not gather enough 217 votes.
Candidates
Right after Mr. Jordan was ousted, a number of Republicans threw their hats in the ring for the speaker race.Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), who received nearly 40 percent of his party’s vote in a face-off with Mr. Jordan, announced that he’s again vying for the gavel.
“If we are going to be the majority, we need to act like the majority, and that means we have to do the right things the right way,” Mr. Scott said in a post on X. “Now that [Mr. Jordan] has withdrawn, I am running again to be the speaker of the House.”
Also running is House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the highest-ranking Republican currently in the race.
“I’m running for Speaker of the House to bring our conference together and get back to work,” Mr. Emmer said in a post on X on Oct. 21, in which he shared a letter asking for GOP support for the race. Rep. Emmer vows to “fight like hell” to keep the House’s GOP majority and deliver on a conservative agenda.
Also running is Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), the candidate most likely to appeal to the right-wing flank of the Republican conference.
Although a member of the House Freedom Caucus, the largest conservative caucus in the House, Mr. Donalds has shown a willingness to work with more moderate members of the party.
Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), a member of the Republican Study Committee (RSC)—a body composed of both centrist Republicans and more conservative Republicans—is also seeking his party’s nomination.
Mr. Hern initially entered the race immediately after Mr. McCarthy was ousted, but withdrew due to higher support for Mr. Scalise and Mr. Jordan.
Also running are less well-known Republicans, including Reps. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.), Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), Mike Johnson (R-La.), Pete Sessions (R-Texas), and Dan Meuser (R-PA).
However, there are no female candidates among nine Republicans who officially filed for the speakership race by the deadline of noon on Oct. 22, the House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) announced the results on her X account.
On Oct. 23, when they return to Capitol Hill, Republicans will host a candidate forum to hear from these and any other candidates that announce from there.
Afterward, they‘ll move on to their third vote for a speaker nominee, likely taking the vote by secret ballot. At that point, it’ll be up to Republicans to narrow the field and choose who will be their third standard-bearer.
