Roy appeared irate as he left the conference meeting. He declined to talk about the election as he left the room but later posted on social media: “The House GOP should NOT have called a vote at 300pm
after finishing the vote at 130pm in Conference. That is unacceptable & purposeful.” He vowed to continue voting against Scalise.
Coming out of a meeting with Scalise on Wednesday night, Roy said he was mainly angry that his rule change was nixed, despite an ideological diverse range of members supporting it, barring the party from appearing more unified. He wouldn’t say if he would eventually support Scalise if he gets more changes to the rules, saying he didn’t want to disclose private discussions. He said the conference is still working out its differences ahead of the House-wide vote.
“There is a tendency in this town for the status quo to take shape and be able to roll over people and steamroll people who are trying to work across ideologies,” Roy said.
Cloud also posted that he found it a “bad, bad idea” to go to a full-House vote with “barely half the conference’s support” for their leading candidate, particularly as Congress must pass government funding legislation to stave off a federal shutdown in about a month’s time.
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“While I respect Steve Scalise, the underhanded efforts to rush this vote to the floor without getting full buy-in from the conference is extremely ill-advised and I will not be supporting the nomination on the floor, absent a further discussion,” Cloud said in his post.
Leading up to Wednesday’s meeting, the Texas delegation had been split in their support, with roughly equal numbers backing each of the two top candidates. Members of the House Freedom Caucus, a deeply conservative body, tended to side more with Jordan, who also had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
Scalise, meanwhile, had the backing of top McCarthy allies. Scalise rose through the traditional ranks of the House Republican Conference and was the more natural heir with his lengthy resume and formidable fundraising operation.
Not everyone was forthcoming in their support. Several members kept their votes secret until the day of the election. Others said either candidate would have been fine and they were waiting to see who could get the most support and put the whole sordid affair to rest.
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“The most important thing for me is, it has to be somebody that can get the number of votes to become speaker. Whoever that person is, I’m not quite clear on that,” said U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, who declined to say whom he voted for during Wednesday’s party meeting.
Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Richmond, also said he wished there’d been more effort to unite the GOP behind one candidate. Nehls was a major Jordan backer, citing Trump’s endorsement for the Ohioan. Nehls had previously nominated Trump to be speaker, though that nomination effort quickly petered out.
“I think that’s very difficult to accomplish right now. I think there should have been more dialogue,” Nehls said. “I just want to make sure that we don’t go through what we did in January and embarrass ourselves because it was a clown show.”
Nehls didn’t specify whom he would support on the House floor, suggesting a third candidate like Trump or another McCarthy could unite the party. READ MORE