Republicans voted down a rule change on Wednesday morning that would have raised the threshold for sending a speaker candidate to the full House, paving the way for a floor vote potentially later in the day.
The conference rejected new rules to require 217 Republicans to back a speaker candidate to become its nominee, or enough to elect a speaker on the floor even if all Democrats are present and vote against the GOP nominee, as expected. Instead, the rule will remain that a simple majority of House Republicans is enough to send the nomination to the floor.
The rule change was meant to avoid repeating the public scramble of Kevin McCarthy’s weeklong struggle to lock down enough GOP votes to become speaker in January, particularly after some vulnerable Republicans raised concerns about the visible chaos of McCarthy’s ouster this month.
