Groundhog Day: 26 GOPers Oppose Emmer As Speaker

Reuters reports:

U.S. House of Representatives Republicans on Tuesday chose Tom Emmer as their nominee for speaker, but struggled to line up enough votes to guarantee he could win the job and fill a leadership vacuum that has paralyzed the chamber for three weeks.

Emmer, who currently serves as the No. 3 Republican in the House, won the nomination by edging Representative Mike Johnson 117-97 in a fifth round of voting.

In a follow-up vote in which he ran unopposed, lawmakers said Emmer fell more than 20 votes short of 217 of the chamber’s 221 Republicans, a high standard that the party has set to ensure it can elect a speaker on the floor if all 212 Democrats unite in opposition.

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