As the impasse over choosing a speaker of the House of Representatives continues for a fourth day, Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) has expressed an openness to supporting a bipartisan “coalition” candidate to end the stalemate.
Around 20 far right Republicans have blocked GOP House leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (California) attempts to be speaker in the first 11 ballots. In the 12th ballot, held on Friday, that number shrunk to seven — an improvement for McCarthy, to be sure, but still enough to block him from becoming speaker.
A person must secure 218 votes to become speaker if all members are present. With a GOP majority of just 222 members, McCarthy can only afford to lose four Republican votes.
Prior to the failure to pick a speaker on Friday, Peltola expressed a willingness to begin negotiations with the GOP to support a more moderate Republican for speaker — perhaps the most direct indication of support for the idea from any Democratic lawmaker so far.
“The gridlock over the Speaker vote is not normal or good for anyone. I am not enjoying this — I don’t think anyone is,” Peltola said on Thursday, according to Alaska Public Radio reporter Liz Ruskin.
Peltola noted that there “is serious legislating that needs to be done and infighting is distracting us from even starting to work on the many problems we face”
“[New York Rep.] Hakeem Jeffries is my choice for Speaker of the House,” said Peltola, who has voted for the Democratic leader of the House in each of the ballots so far. “That said, I have always been willing to work with people regardless of political party. If there are members who want to form a coalition majority like we often see in Alaska, I’m open to discussing that.”
It’s unlikely — but not impossible — that a coalition candidate will be nominated, as it would require Democrats and Republicans to select a candidate who both parties could potentially agree on. It would also require major concessions to Democrats, including, potentially, a shared governance agreement in the House.
Negotiations between Republicans indicate that McCarthy is still attempting to secure the support of the far right lawmakers who oppose him, though many of his concessions will significantly weaken the position he’s seeking to hold. If these negotiations continue to result in McCarthy gaining votes on the House floor, it’s less likely that a coalition candidate will be nominated.
Due to the failure to select a speaker on Friday, it’s possible that ballots will continue through the weekend and into next week as negotiations between the two GOP factions come to a head. It’s unclear, however, whether McCarthy will be able to convince the remaining holdouts to support him.
During a speech on the floor prior to the 12th ballot, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), one of the staunchest anti-McCarthy Republicans, implied that he and others wouldn’t ever vote for McCarthy. “Mr. McCarthy doesn’t have the votes today, he will not have the votes tomorrow, and he will not have the votes next week, next month, next year,” he said.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.