Chief position in the US Congress
Republican Scalise withdraws candidacy
October 13, 2023, 2:36 a.m
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The US House of Representatives remains paralyzed for even longer. Because the search for a new chairman is further delayed: Steve Scalise, who was put into the race by the Republicans, is giving up.
The chaos in the US House of Representatives continues: Representative Steve Scalise, nominated by the Republicans for chairmanship of the Chamber of Congress, has withdrawn his candidacy. Scalise announced this on Thursday evening (local time) due to a lack of support from within his own ranks. The Republican parliamentary group nominated the arch-conservative MP on Wednesday in a vote with a narrow majority as the successor to Kevin McCarthy, who was deposed last week.
But the vote was very close: the arch-conservative representative from the southern state of Louisiana got 113 votes, the right-wing hardliner Jim Jordan got 99 votes. Several Republicans subsequently announced that they would not vote for Scalise in the plenary session. Because the conservatives only have a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, Scalise could only afford a few dissenters in his own ranks.
Scalise tried throughout Thursday to change the minds of doubters in his own ranks – apparently without success. “I have just informed my colleagues that I am withdrawing my name as a candidate for chairman-designate,” said the 58-year-old in the evening.
This means that the House of Representatives remains paralyzed for the time being – at a time when the US government wants to decide on further military aid for Israel and Ukraine and prevent a budget freeze looming in mid-November. McCarthy was overthrown on October 3rd in the wake of a revolt by right-wing hardliners in his own party. The background was the dispute over the US budget and new aid to Ukraine.