US House Majority Whip Tom Emmer drops out of speaker race hours after nomination

WASHINGTON -- US House Majority Whip Tom Emmer on Tuesday dropped his bid for House speaker, just hours after being nominated by Republicans, becoming the third GOP nominee to withdraw from the race for speaker.

In a closed door vote earlier in the day, Emmer emerged as the third Republican nominee for House speaker, which took five rounds of votes to get to consensus, as several House Republicans recently joined the race.

In a roll vote afterwards, over 20 holdouts voted against the speaker designee, indicating intraparty resistance over his speakership.

Emmer was opposed by the right flank of his conference, including Rep. Jim Banks, who said the speaker designee is not conservative enough.

Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to urge Republicans not to vote for Emmer, calling him a globalist RINO, or Republican in name only, and warning that electing him speaker "would be a tragic mistake."

With a slim 221-212 Republican majority in the chamber, a Republican nominee can lose no more than four Republican votes to reach the majority threshold and become speaker, assuming all Democrats vote for their candidate, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Failing to garner 217 votes from Republicans, Emmer became the third GOP nominee to withdraw from the race for speaker, following House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

The House has been leaderless for over two weeks, after Kevin McCarthy was unprecedentedly removed from his position on Oct. 3, in a move initiated by a conservative member of his own party. Eight Republicans voted with Democrats in the historical ouster.

The stalemate has prompted some lawmakers to push for the empowerment of Patrick McHenry - the temporary speaker - in the hope that he can oversee the passage of urgently needed legislation until House Republicans can coalesce and elect a new leader.