McCarthy’s internal GOP foes remain silent amid heated battle over whether to back incumbent Steve Scalise or dark horse Jim Jordan as secret ballot begins
- Only Rep. Nancy Mace, RS.C., has offered a public endorsement — endorsing Rep. Jim Jordan
- Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., tweeted Tuesday that he would pray hard to decide who to support
The eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have kept their cards close to their chests on who they will support for the next Speaker of the House.
Only Rep. Nancy Mace, RS.C., has offered a public endorsement — throwing her support behind Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee.
The Liberal MP attended an all-conference meeting on Tuesday night wearing a white T-shirt with a red ‘A’ on it. “I’m wearing the scarlet letter after the week of just being a woman here and being demonized for my vote (to oust McCarthy),” she told reporters.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., the fiery Florida lawmaker who started the vote to oust McCarthy, tweeted Tuesday that he would “pray hard” to decide who to support Wednesday morning.
He called Jordan and Scalise “two respected and trusted men.”
“You’re not getting anything from me in terms of who I’m supporting,” Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., told reporters Tuesday.
“I think so,” he told DailyMail.com when asked if Republicans would rally around a candidate by Wednesday.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., also said he would pray about who to support.
Reps. Bob Good, R-Va., Ken Buck, R-Colo., Eli Crane and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., all declined reporters’ questions about who they would support.
Scalise, as a current member of the GOP leadership team, has seemingly garnered more traction among establishment Republicans, while Jordan is popular on the right wing of the convention.
Rep. Dan Bishop, a McCarthy foe who threatened to support his ouster but ultimately did not, now supports Jordan. He didn’t rule out supporting Scalise, but said he didn’t think the majority leader had a “crystal clear plan” to lead the conference into a tough spending battle.
“Some of my concerns with Scalise are so obvious that I’m not going to say it,” Bishop told DailyMail.com. “But do we really think this institution is working so well that we should just move up the next one?”
“If you think that Congress and the Republicans in Congress have done a fantastic job over 20 years, then it would make sense,” Bishop said. “If you think there are shortages, then maybe not.”
But tensions between McCarthy and Scalise are an open secret in Washington.
They first boiled over publicly when conservatives were angered by McCarthy’s deal with Joe Biden on the debt ceiling.
Instead of involving Scalise in the debt ceiling discussions, McCarthy relied on his close friends, Rep. Garrett Graves, R-La., and Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, RN.C., to negotiate with White House.
Both Scalise and Jordan have admitted they will have to file a continuing resolution (CR) — a bill to extend state funding to 2023 levels and avert a government shutdown while scrapping a longer-term spending plan.
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