House Republican Caucus In Apparent Disarray Over Speaker Election

The United States House of Representatives is still very much in limbo tonight, as fractures within the Republican majority appear to growing wider, making the prospect of electing a new Speaker anytime soon dimmer.

Behind closed doors Thursday afternoon, House Republicans met for nearly 3 hours to air grievances, express hopes, and ultimately to see if Rep. Steve Scalise has a realistic path to 217 votes.

"I know he’s working hard to try to get there," Oklahoma Congressman Kevin Hern, who is supporting Scalise's bid said.

More than a week after removing Kevin McCarthy as Speaker and just one day after narrowly voting to make Louisiana's Scalise the nominee to take McCarthy's place, the divided Republican conference tried to hash out their differences.

"I want to meet in front of all of our members," Scalise (R-LA) said beforehand, "answer every question and just continue to work through to unite and bring our conference together."

Assessments of how that went were certainly mixed. Oklahoma's Tom Cole believes Scalise will ultimately get the conference's full support, even if it does take some time.

"I think we made a lot of progress today," Cole told reporters when he emerged from the room in the basement of the Capitol building.

Others said it didn't feel like much, if any progress was made.

"I’m not sure we are progressing," Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA2) said, "we’re certainly not progressing as fast as I want to be progressing."

Kiggans and other Republicans expressed tremendous frustration with the 20 to 30 members who won't at least give Scalise a chance to lead. They say it's important for a variety of reasons that they get back to work, not the least of which is so they can be more engaged in helping Israel and the Americans who are stranded there.

"That’s more important to me," Rep. Elisa Stefanik (R-NY), an initial Rep. Jim Jordan supporter who says she'll vote for Scalise, said, "and I just--we need to elect a Speaker and just move on and start governing."

Oklahoma 2nd District Congressman Josh Brecheen also was supporting Jim Jordan, but so far has been unwilling to commit to Scalise.

"I think it’s always wise to do a lot more listening," Rep. Brecheen said Thursday afternoon, "so that’s where I’m at."

Congressman Hern, who had been considering making a run for Speaker himself, says Scalise is going to have to draw heavily on his prior experience as House Whip.

"It feels like he has the skills that can get this resolved," Hern said, "but he has to get those people in the room that are opposed to him."

Rep. Hern has an added interest in Scalise’s fate, as he announced Wednesday that if Scalise does become Speaker, he plans to run for Scalise's current position of Majority Leader.