Steve Scalise Drops Out of Speaker's Race

One day after he won a GOP ballot to seek the position of House speaker, Steve Scalise is out of the running. "It's been quite a journey," the GOP majority leader told reporters Thursday night. "And there's still a long way to go. I just shared with my colleagues that I'm withdrawing my name as a candidate for the speaker designee." The reason? Scalise knew he'd never be able to get the 217 votes necessary on the House floor to win the gavel, per Politico. So now what? It appears that GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, the man Scalise defeated Wednesday, will again try to win the Republican conference ballot. However, it remains uncertain whether he, or anyone, has enough support to reach the threshold of 217 votes.

"This country is counting on us to come back together," Scalise said Thursday. "But there's some folks that really need to look in the mirror over the next couple of days and decide are we going to get it back on track, or they're going to try to pursue their own agenda," he said, per Axios. The House has been without a speaker for nine days since GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz led the charge to oust Kevin McCarthy from the post. (More Steve Scalise stories.)