Several conservatives who pushed for Speaker of the House John Boehner to delay House Majority Leader and Majority Whip elections say they support Boehner pushing the votes back until next month.
Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), Rep. Jim Renacci (R-OH), Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who together led the effort to postpone leadership elections according to Conference Rules, are applauding Boehner’s decision.
“This is the right way to do it,” stated Mulvaney. “With plenty of time to talk about rules changes and then, future leadership races, when and if they become necessary. I applaud Speaker Boehner for handling it this way.”
“I applaud Speaker Boehner’s decision to allow our new Speaker to set the date for any further leadership elections until after the floor vote on October 29th,” said Renacci. “As our letter points out, Conference Rules require there be a vacancy before a leadership election can take place. Any elections prior to another leadership position being officially vacated would be premature.”
“One of the concrete results from last week’s Conference meeting was that a broad spectrum of members have an appetite for reevaluating the rules,” Roskam stated.
As I’ve said before, we need a plan, not just a person, to lead this historic majority in effectively serving the American people. We should begin by reforming the rules and processes so that we can better unite behind conservative solutions and advance them out of the House. I’m glad the elections for prospective leadership slots have been delayed. This will give us an opportunity to have this important conversation before selecting our next leaders.
“Delaying the leadership elections wisely gives the candidates time to credibly commit to fighting for what the voters sent us here to do, including maintaining the BCA caps, fully repealing Obamacare via reconciliation, and actually decreasing the debt rather than cutting blank checks for the President,” said Jordan. “It also allows them to demonstrate their leadership qualities by adopting meaningful and fair process reforms within both the Republican Conference and the House.”
Boehner resigns at the end of the month and will hold the nomination for his replacement on Thursday. Currently, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) are seeking nomination for the Speaker of the House to replace Boehner.