US Republicans Pick Scalise for Speaker, but Not a Done Deal

Steve Scalise, a top Republican member of the House of Representatives, emerged as the party’s nominee for Speaker in a secret ballot on Wednesday narrowly beating Jim Jordan, another top leader who, however, had been endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Scalise won 113-99. But his path to speakership remains uncertain. He needs to get in all 227 votes of House to win, and given that all Democrats will vote for their own nominee, who is likely to Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the party, Scalise will need all fellow republican to vote for him, including those who voted for Jordan in the secret ballot and the hardliners who booted out Kevin McCarthy, the previous speaker.

Scalise has been a member of the Republican leadership team, was the House Majority Leader under McCarthy’s speakership.

In August, he announced he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and that it was “very treatable” because it was detected early. He returned to work in September. He suffered bullet injuries during a congressional baseball game in 2017 and was in recovery for the next three months.