House majority whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) won the internal vote among Republicans to be nominated for speaker, but he faces a steep uphill climb.
Emmer becomes the third Republican to attempt to reach the 217-vote summit needed to replace ousted speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) after defeating a seven-candidate GOP field, but he will almost certainly come up short, reported multiple House correspondents.
“There were 26 that either voted present or voted for another candidate," Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY) told CNN's Manu Raju. "Of those, I believe there were five that voted present and the bulk of them were for Jim Jordan. I think there was five for Mike Johnson, one for Byron Donalds.”
Emmer notched 117 votes on the final ballot, compared to 97 for Johnson. Punchbowl founder Jake Sherman also reported that 26 Republicans would oppose him in a floor vote.
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"It's official: Roll-call vote is over," Sherman reported. "26 House Republicans said they would vote for someone else besides Tom Emmer for speaker on the floor. A gigantic pool of nos."
