The Republican-led House will immediately recess Wednesday around 3 p.m. without voting on Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) as speaker, according to a person familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations. It’s unclear how long the recess might last. Scalise narrowly won his party’s nomination earlier Wednesday in a race that also included Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). The delay in a vote by the full House signals that Scalise is still working to win support of Jordan backers. Becoming speaker requires a majority vote in the full, narrowly divided House.
Scalise is seeking to succeed Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), whose ouster as speaker last week was led by hard-line conservatives.
Ahead of the voting, House Republicans shot down a proposed rule change that would have increased the threshold needed to nominate a speaker to well beyond a simple majority of the conference.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) will back Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) for House speaker and has offered to give a nominating speech on Scalise’s behalf, according to a spokesperson for Jordan
