WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman David G. Valadao (CA-22) released the following statement following the third failed Speaker vote in the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives has now been without a Speaker of the House for 17 days following the removal of Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“We are in the position we are in today because a small minority imposed their will on the majority,” said Congressman Valadao. “Eight Republicans teamed up with every single House Democrat to remove a Republican Speaker of the House, with no plan in place to replace him. Those of us who voted to keep McCarthy knew his removal would only undermine our Republican majority and delay our work.  I voted in support of the Republican Conference’s nominee each time we’ve gone to the floor because we need to get back to work. We have a crisis at our southern border, one of our closest allies in the Middle East at war, and a deadline to fund the government in less than 30 days. We must return to governing. I, like the majority of our conference, wish that 8 of my colleagues had not weakened our Republican majority by removing Speaker McCarthy.”

Background:

Congressman Valadao supported Kevin McCarthy as Speaker through 15 rounds of votes in January and continued to support him when the motion to vacate was brought against him two weeks ago. Eight Republicans and 208 Democrats voted to remove Kevin McCarthy from the Speakership on October 3rd. Since then, the Republican Conference has held several conference meetings to try to find consensus on a Speaker candidate. On October 11th, Majority Leader Steve Scalise won the conference’s support in a closed-door ballot, but due to opposition from the minority of the conference a vote on Speaker-designee Scalise never made it to the House Floor. On October 13th, Representative Jim Jordan won the conference’s support in a closed-door ballot by a narrow margin. The full House voted on Jim Jordan’s candidacy for Speaker on October 17th. Congressman Valadao supported Jim Jordan through the three rounds of floor votes. Following the third failed floor vote, the Republican Conference conducted a closed-door ballot on whether or not to keep Representative Jordan as the Speaker-designee, which he lost 112-86. The Republican conference will now meet again on Monday, October 23^rd to vote on a new Speaker nominee.


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