US House Republicans face tangled path to picking a new speaker

SRN NEWS

Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives will try to move closer to picking a successor to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday, under mounting pressure from a war in the Middle East and another looming government shutdown.

The House Republican majority was due to hear from at least two candidates for the top congressional post – Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan – at an evening closed-door forum, a day before party members were expected to vote on a nominee by secret ballot.

Republicans hold a narrow 221-212 majority, which made it possible for just a handful of their members to oust McCarthy last week, and could make leading the caucus challenging for any new speaker.

While McCarthy was the first speaker to be ousted in a formal vote, the last two Republicans to hold the job wound up leaving under pressure from party hardliners.