House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) dropped out of the speaker race just a couple hours after winning the GOP nomination on Tuesday.
The news came after Emmer reportedly stormed out of a GOP conference meeting as roughly two dozen Republicans refused to support him and former President Donald Trump unleashed a Truth Social post against his bid for the speakership.
Because Republicans have a narrow majority in the House, Emmer could only afford to lose a handful of GOP votes if all Democrats opposed his bid. So far, Democrats have rallied behind their nominee, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
Exactly three weeks after the House voted to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker, Emmer became the third Republican nominee after campaigns by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) failed to prevail over resistance from within the GOP conference.
Scalise, like Emmer, never made it to a House floor vote. Jordan, who was endorsed by Trump, is the only nominee who did. He failed to clinch the speaker’s gavel across three votes, after w …