Republicans Nominate Paul Ryan for House Speaker
Philip Wegmann /
Rep. Paul Ryan is House Republicans’ nominee to be their next speaker.
Behind closed doors and by secret ballot, 200 Republicans nominated Ryan for speaker. The only other competitor, Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., received 43 votes, mostly from members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
Ryan needed only 124 votes, the majority of Republicans, to become the speaker nominee.
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., each also received a single vote.
In a brief statement to reporters, Ryan, R-Wis., said his impending election “begins a new day in the House of Representatives,” declaring that “tomorrow, we are turning the page.”
While Ryan thanked outgoing Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, for “serving with humility and distinction,” he made clear that the House will undergo significant reform in the future.
“We are not going to have a House that looked like it looked for the last few years,” Ryan said. “We are going to move forward. We are going to unify. Our party has lost its vision and we are going to replace it with a vision.”
Ryan will need 218 votes to officially become the speaker. McCarthy seemed confident Ryan would win enough votes before the full House on Thursday to take the gavel.
Asked if that number would be difficult to reach, McCarthy said, “No, not at all.”
The majority of the Freedom Caucus is expected to switch their support from Webster to Ryan during a vote before the full House on the floor Thursday.
A founding member of that caucus, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told reporters that the official vote on the House floor tomorrow “will not be indicative of the conference vote today” and expressed confidence that Ryan will win the position.
“With the agreements we have in terms of rules, Paul Ryan will have more than enough votes to put him over the threshold,” Meadows predicted.
Freedom Caucus members like Meadows have long advocated for procedural reforms that would empower individual committees and rank-and-file members. While courting support over the last few weeks, Ryan has given general support for procedural and rules reform.
In the run up to the vote, the caucus continues to negotiate those reforms.
Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, and Luke Messer, chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, have circulated a “dear colleague” letter to members diagramming specific member-suggested rule changes.
In an interview with The Daily Signal after the speaker vote, Messer, R-Ind., said that Ryan has committed “to making that process work.”
“Paul made the commitment today that we will see Steering Committee changes by Thanksgiving, and then we will have the broader menu of changes made by the end of the year,” Messer said.
Asked about the “motion to vacate,” a century-old procedure used earlier this year to force out Boehner, Messer said, “It could be part of that conversation.”
The Indiana congressman also praised Webster for changing “the conversation of our conference.”
“Dan Webster deserves a lot of credit, not just for the integrity for which he ran his race,” Messer said, “but for the legitimate subject matter that he brought up that has shaped where our conference will go next.”
Many members said they viewed the difficult process that it took to nominate Ryan as healthy.
In an interview with The Daily Signal, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., said “that’s democracy in action.”
“The key now is that we have, in essence, a Republican nominee to replace John Boehner,” he said. “Now we need to coalesce and make sure that our speaker, which means our Republican-controlled House, can succeed.”
This story has been updated to include additional reporting.