Seven of the Nine Republicans Running for Speaker are Election Deniers

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File

Seven of the nine House Republicans who have put forward their names for speaker are election deniers, one of many signs of the pervasive influence former President Donald Trump wields over the party.

The slim majority Republicans have in the House has led to an ongoing struggle for power, as hardliners like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) demanded concessions from Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) before they finally let him claim the gavel on the fifteenth round of voting — only to oust him mere months later.

Since then, the House GOP caucus has done its best impression of a raging dumpster fire, with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) being the latest to flop in his run for speaker, failing in — count ’em, one, two, three — consecutive floor votes (and losing support each round as fellow Republicans denounced the strong-arm tactics from Jordan allies) before a closed-door caucus vote ordered him to stop trying to make fetch happen.

Republican House members have been unfiltered in their anger and frustration about the festering debacle their own GOP colleagues created, and polls show even GOP primary voters don’t approve.

There’s been some chatter about reinstalling McCarthy or granting Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry (R-NC) some additional powers to allow the House to function, but right now the next step will be a candidate forum held at 6:30 pm ET Monday, followed by what is expected to be multiple rounds of votes on Tuesday, with the lowest vote-getter being dropped each round until only one man is left standing.

Of the nine candidates — Reps. Tom Emmer (R-MN), Mike Johnson (R-LA), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Kevin Hern (R-OK), Jack Bergman (R-MI), Austin Scott (R-GA), Pete Sessions (R-TX), Gary Palmer (R-AL), and Dan Meuser (R-PA) — all but Emmer and Scott voted against certifying the 2020 Electoral College votes.

Jordan and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the last two Republicans to attempt to succeed McCarthy as speaker, also both voted against certifying the election, and Jordan in particular doubled down on supporting Trump’s baseless stolen election claims as his attempts to win the gavel sputtered and then finally died.

To be clear, at the point that Congress was voting on the Electoral College certification on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump and his allies had filed and lost over sixty lawsuits in state and federal courts across the country, with the rulings often coming from judges appointed by Republican governors and presidents — some even by Trump himself. The entire cumulative total of “evidence” submitted with these lawsuits, even if viewed in the light most favorable for Trump, would not have been enough to overturn the election results in one state, much less the multiple states Trump would have had to flip in order to overtake Joe Biden’s Electoral College votes.

Even Emmer, who did recognize reality in casting his vote to certify the election, has been taking great pains over the past few days to declare his loyalty to Trump, with his team highlighting how he supported Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns, and co-hosted events with the then-president during his time as NRCC chair.

Predictably, Trump rejoiced about Emmer bending the knee, boasting that the Minnesotan was “my biggest fan now.”