As a paralyzed U.S. Congress begins its twentieth day, a Georgia lawmaker is among the nine Republicans seeking to become the next Speaker of the House.
U.S. Rep. Austin Scott said Friday that he will run again for the top job after Jim Jordan’s nomination collapsed.
“If we are going to be the majority we need to act like the majority, and that means we have to do the right things the right way,” the Tifton Republican said on the social media platform X. “I supported and voted for Rep. Jim Jordan to be the Speaker of the House. Now that he has withdrawn I am running again to be the Speaker of the House.”
This is Scott’s second bid for Speaker this month. He surprised many of his colleagues when he mounted an insurgent challenge to the Trump-backed Jordan, falling short to the Ohio conservative. But it is not clear if the little-known South Georgia lawmaker will be able to break through in such a crowded race.
Scott, who holds a BBA in risk management from the University of Georgia, has been in elected office since the 1990s, when he was elected to the Georgia state legislature at the age of 26. He is now in his seventh term representing the sprawling 8th congressional district, which runs from the Macon area to the Florida state line. He serves on three of the most powerful committees on Capitol Hill: Agriculture, Armed Services and Intelligence.
He has been highly critical of his Republican colleagues who moved to oust Kevin McCarthy, saying that they are “nothing more than grifters who have handed control of the House to the Democratic Party in the name of their own glory and fundraising.” He went on to say that the stalemate makes his party “look like a bunch of idiots.”
But the low-key Scott is now in a crowded race that features several better-known candidates. The presumptive frontrunner appears to be Rep. Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican who serves in House GOP leadership. Other candidates include Republican Study Committee chairman Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Conference Vice Chairman Mike Johnson of Louisiana and GOP rising star Byron Donalds of Florida.
House Republicans will meet behind closed doors Monday for a candidate forum, where each candidate will have roughly 12 minutes to make their pitches to conference members. A vote is expected to take place early Tuesday morning, but the muddled field essentially guarantees that no one will emerge on the first ballot.
Not to mention, the eventual nominee will then be faced with the same difficult task that has plagued every Republican nominee for Speaker this year: assembling enough votes to win the gavel on the floor of the House.
But until this leadership chaos is resolved, the business of the American people is on hold — which means critical agenda items such as funding the federal government and supplying aid to our Israeli and Ukrainian allies cannot move forward.