- On Tuesday, the House voted to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker.
- With his ousting, GOP leaders are reportedly clamoring to increase their role on the ladder.
Republican leaders in the chamber aren't wasting any time to position themselves for new leadership opportunities after the lower chamber voted to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday from his role as speaker.
Along with the entire Democratic caucus, a group of eight GOP hardliners elected to remove McCarthy from his post after Rep. Matt Gaetz formally filed a "motion to vacate" McCarthy's speakership on Monday. While previous House rules made it more difficult to file such a motion, McCarthy was forced by far-right holdouts in January to make the process much easier in order for him to accrue enough votes to ascend to the House's top position.
While McCarthy is still in office as a representative, fellow Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry has temporarily taken over the role of interim speaker of the House until a full-fledged one is selected as early as next Wednesday.
Outside of McCarthy's removal and McHenry's temporary appointment, the structure of the GOP's leadership in the congressional body is unchanged — for now. As it stands, Rep. Steve Scalise is still the majority leader, Rep. Tom Emmer is the majority whip, and Rep. Elise Stefanik serves as the Republican conference chairman.
That's highly likely to change in the coming weeks, however, after several reports have emerged that Scalise, Emmer, and Stefanik are each eyeing how they can boost their leadership ranks.
Scalise has already blasted out a "Dear Colleague" letter to his fellow Republicans in the House announcing his intention to try and succeed McCarthy as speaker. He'll face off against Rep. Jim Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, as well as Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern.
As for Emmer, he told reporters on Tuesday that he wants to become the next majority leader. Stefanik, who's confirmed she won't be running for speaker, is also reportedly "keeping her options open" on the majority leader and whip positions.
Additionally, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, the GOP's chief deputy whip, also declared his desire on Wednesday to replace Emmer as whip if given the opportunity.
Despite the ongoing movement amongst Republican House leadership at the moment, the House is out of session until next week. As a result, some members like GOP Rep. Greg Steube, have lamented that the chamber won't be able to deliberate on any bills or carry on with the impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden.