Republicans proposed this Wednesday at Steve Scalise as a candidate for the leadership of the House of Representatives in the United States, a position vacant since the conservative Kevin McCarthy was dismissed on October 3 after a motion against him was presented in his own order.
Scalise, “number two” of the Republican bench, and Jim Jordan, president of the Judiciary Committee, fought for the position, which he defeated after an internal and closed-door vote of 113 votes to 99.
Scalise still needs to win final approval from the entire House of Representatives, where Republicans have 221 seats and Democrats have 212. To win the position he needs the approval of 217 congressmen, therefore he needs to gain the support of his supporters. from Jordan.
That vote may take place this Wednesday and on The democratic caucus ran again Hakeem Jeffrieswho currently holds the position of minority leader and who in January, when McCarthy won, also tried.
Scalise, 58, a representative of Louisiana’s First District, faces the challenge while undergoing treatment for blood cancer, a situation that some lawmakers consider working against him.
“I think his health is a problem. I don’t want anyone to get worse at work. It’s a hard job where you have to be everywhere,” said Jordan’s supporter Ralph Norman on CNN this week.
The fight for legislative leadership It was opened after the motion to recall McCarthy, presented by radical Republican Matt Gaetz, was approved by 216 votes in favor and 210 against, leaving Patrick McHenry in interim command.
Scalise came to Congress in 2008, after serving as a Louisiana state legislator since 1996. From 2014 to 2018 he was the representative Republican majority leader and the minority leader from 2019 to 2022.
Until the election of a new president, the House of Representatives is effectively paralyzed, because among other things the new law cannot be passed.
“We have a lot of work to do. (…) We have to make sure that we send people around the world that the House is open and working,” said Scalise in his first appearance in front of the press after being nominated.
The first resolution to be approved under his last mandate, he emphasized, was one to support Israel after the attack launched by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. “But obviously there are a lot of other things waiting,” he added.
