Minnesota U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer drops out of House speaker race

WASHINGTON – U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer's tenure as the GOP's nominee for speaker lasted about four hours on Tuesday as fervent divisions within the party once again kept Republicans from finding a path out of an unprecedented situation.

A source familiar with Emmer's decision confirmed to the Star Tribune he dropped out of the speaker's race.

Emmer quickly exited a Capitol Hill building on Tuesday afternoon, leaving behind a swarm of media.

"It seems as though if you want to make sure that you cannot be speaker of the House, the best thing that you can do right now is run for the office," said GOP U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota.

Earlier in the day, Emmer overcame a field of roughly seven candidates to become the party's latest standard-bearer in the chamber. He won the nomination after five rounds of voting amid the party's dire struggle to find a replacement for former speaker Kevin McCarthy.

"I think Tom Emmer would be a great speaker," Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Glenn Thompson, the Republican leader of the House Agriculture Committee, said before Emmer dropped out.

Yet shortly after Emmer won the nomination, the challenge he faced in winning a House floor vote became clear. Texas GOP Rep. Troy Nehls, who told reporters he didn't vote for Emmer during the closed-door meeting on Tuesday, said more than 20 lawmakers didn't plan to support the Minnesota Republican for speaker, which could doom Emmer's chances.

"People are talking; he's had some issues with the former president," Nehls said. "I think some of the comments that he's made in the past, I'm not going to get specific, but I think it's causing him some problems today."

If Emmer had become speaker, the 62-year-old would have made history as the first Minnesota lawmaker to serve as the highest-ranking lawmaker in the U.S. House.

"Everyone knows Tom," Minnesota GOP Rep. Brad Finstad, who supported Emmer for speaker, said earlier this week about House Republicans. "So there's no introduction to who he is and how his style is. People know what to expect with him. He's a steady hand."

But Emmer's path to a floor win was seen as difficult even before he won the nomination, given the severe tensions rippling through the Republican party.

"Do you think that these people that overthrew McCarthy did so in order to just replace him with somebody that is maybe even a little bit more willing to deal with Democrats than he is? It doesn't make any sense," said Tim Miller, a vocal Trump critic and former national Republican strategist who wrote a book titled "Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell."

Republicans have a razor-thin majority in the House, and just four Republicans voting against a speaker nominee can doom a candidate's chances at the speakership. Emmer was the third person the GOP has nominated this month to try to replace McCarthy.

"The fact that Tom Emmer was not far-right enough for House Republicans is a sign of just how extreme the Republican Party has become," Minnesota DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement.

Emmer's candidacy even sparked possible bipartisan interest before he abandoned the bid.

Shortly before Republicans met to pick their nominee, Minnesota Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips signaled he could see a path to helping Emmer become speaker on the floor.

"The dysfunction in the House is a national and global security issue," Phillips wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, Tuesday morning. "I would sit-out the Speaker vote if Tom Emmer will fund our government at negotiated levels, bring Ukraine and Israel aid bills to the floor, and commit to rules changes to make Congress work for the people."

A small group of renegade Republicans were able to oust McCarthy as speaker on Oct. 3, denying him the GOP support he needed to keep his post. No Democrats crossed lines to keep McCarthy as speaker.

Emmer originally backed House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana to replace McCarthy. But while Scalise won the nomination behind closed doors, he failed to win enough support behind the scenes and never held a floor vote on his speaker ambitions.

The GOP next turned to far-right Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, only for him to fail to win in three rounds of floor voting last week.

During the chaos, Emmer has been a team player. He gave a floor speech backing McCarthy before the then-speaker was ousted and voted for Jordan in all three rounds on the House floor.

Emmer's political career has taken a series of twists and turns. He served in the Minnesota House for six years before a close loss in his 2010 bid for governor. In 2014, he won the congressional seat held by Michele Bachmann. Emmer served as the chairman of the House Republicans' campaign arm for two cycles, helping the party to a better-than-expected performance in 2020 and then narrowly winning the majority in the 2022 midterms.

Soon after Republicans won control of the House, Emmer won a heated race to become the third-highest-ranking House Republican.

In the speaker race, Emmer had to contend with antagonism from former President Donald Trump's orbit. Although Emmer was a clear Trump supporter during the 2016 election and also backed him in 2020, Trump allies went after the Minnesotan on social media.

Those attacks came despite the fact that Emmer voted against impeaching Trump in 2019 and 2021, and Emmer thanked Trump on social media for recent comments he made about the Minnesotan.

In late 2020 Emmer was among the lawmakers who signed on to a last-ditch legal attempt that failed to invalidate 62 of President Joe Biden's Electoral College votes.

But Emmer did go on to vote to certify the 2020 presidential election following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, breaking away from the Trump hardliners in his own party.

Not long after Emmer became the speaker nominee — but before dropping out of the race — Trump dismissed Emmer as a "RINO," or Republican in name only.

Posting on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, Trump wrote, "He is totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters. I believe he has now learned his lesson, because he is saying that he is Pro-Trump all the way, but who can ever be sure?"

Staff writer Ryan Faircloth contributed to this report.