As Speaker Paul Ryan announced his retirement on Wednesday, the House Republican leadership has entered a race for who will be the one to replace him.
According to The Hill, Ryan’s top lieutenants, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise, are both seen as potential Speakers-in-waiting or minority leaders, should the Republicans lose the House in the upcoming midterm elections.
Although none of them has officially confirmed that they are nominating for the soon to be a vacant position, their Republican colleagues think both men will likely start to be making the needed moves in the weeks ahead.
Meanwhile, experts say that more lawmakers could enter the race as the GOP lawmakers struggle to keep their majority while considering who should lead them in 2019.
“I know this town doesn’t let the bodies get cold before people start making announcements,” said Republican Representative for North Carolina Mark Walker, who is also the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee.
“We’ve got to have a Speaker. And this is politics. So people will start running,” said the GOP Representative from Texas, Roger Williams.
Speaker Ryan announced Wednesday morning that he is going to retire from Congress in January, which will bring an end to his Speakership position after more than three years on the chair.
The Hill reported that speculation about Ryan’s political future had been swirling for months, but his formal announcement will now bring the battle for the Speaker’s gavel to the forefront of the conversation in the months leading up to November’s midterm elections.
“Certainly, his leaving will create a real vacuum,” said Representative Mark Meadows, the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. “There will be a de facto battle for Speaker, or minority leader, that will ensue over the coming weeks, not months.”
McCarthy and Scalise, who are considered to be No. 2 and 3 House majority leaders, reportedly had already started jockeying behind the scenes in case Ryan decided to call it quits after the midterms.
However, although McCarthy and Scalise both praised Ryan for his service in Congress, they made no mention of their own future plans for the vacant seat.
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