More Republicans Join Speakership Race as Paul Ryan’s Nascent Campaign Falls Apart on the Runway
Several Republicans who aren’t as closely associated with outgoing House Speaker Rep. John Boehner as House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan are considering running for Speaker as Ryan’s nascent campaign is crumbling before it even begins.
The two who have, at this time, the most likely ability to unite the GOP conference and achieve well more than the necessary 218 votes on the House floor are House Energy and Commerce Committee vice chairwoman Rep. Marsha Blackburn and former House Chief Deputy Whip Rep. Peter Roskam. Other Republicans like Reps. Rep. Matt Salmon, Rep. Ryan Zinke, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, and even current non-House member former Speaker Newt Gingrich are considering bids. More names than those have been tossed out, too.
“Marsha has heard from a lot of people who are encouraging her to run,” Blackburn spokesman Mike Reynard told Breitbart News on Friday. “Right now she is listening and having conversations with her colleagues about what is the best way to unite our conference moving forward.”
Blackburn, who would if elected be the first female GOP Speaker of the House ever, will be joining Breitbart News Sunday on SiriusXM Patriot Ch. 125 on Sunday evening to discuss this topic in greater depth.
A House GOP aide also confirmed to Breitbart News that Roskam is considering a bid for the Speakership. A former member of leadership, he lost the bid for House Majority Whip to current Whip Rep. Steve Scalise after former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was driven out of Congress. Roskam was supported in that bid by conservatives like Rep. Steve King, the chairman of the Conservative Opportunity Society, because he was pledging not to back any amnesty bill while Scalise wouldn’t make such a pledge. Roskam also has something unique to his résumé: He is the only current GOP member of Congress to have served in the Illinois state Senate opposite Barack Obama, which would allow him to detail how he’s fought Obama and won before and how he plans to do it again in the House leadership. (Read more from “More Republicans Join Speakership Race as Paul Ryan’s Nascent Campaign Falls Apart on the Runway” HERE)
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