Republicans Try to Elect a Speaker

Punchbowl News: “Today is a huge day for House Republicans. They’ll meet at 10 a.m. to try to nominate their candidate for speaker. As you know by now, the choices are House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio.”

“We’ll note this is as discombobulated and disorganized as the House GOP conference has been for more than two decades. They’re leaderless, angry and upset over how they got here and worried about what’s next. There’s backstabbing, bad blood and mistrust. Evidence: After preaching unity for the last week, Jordan declined to say openly whether he’ll back Scalise if the Louisiana Republican wins the nomination for speaker. And that may cost him some votes.”

Playbook: “In just a few hours, House Republicans will gather to nominate Kevin McCarthy’s successor as speaker, and we noticed something curious as we spent all yesterday checking in with allies of the two rivals for the gavel, Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan: Both camps are quite confident that their candidate is ahead and will ultimately win.”

Today’s voting is by secret ballot, so it’s impossible to say who’s ahead.