Six of the eight Republican candidates for House speaker voted to decertify the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021, in the hours after the assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Voted to certify 2020 presidential election results
Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the majority whip and the highest ranking Republican running for speaker, is one of the two who voted to certify the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6. While he acknowledged that millions of Americans didn’t trust the election results and said he shared the concerns of those who questioned changes to the election system in some states (most of which came about as a result of the pandemic), Emmer condemned the rioting and said that Article 2 of the Constitution and 12th Amendment said that Congress doesn’t have the authority to discard electors that have been certified by a state legislature.
Emmer, who was first elected to Congress in 2014, has the endorsement of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted from the speakership almost three weeks ago.
Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, who ran for speaker as a protest candidate against Jordan in the House GOP conference, also voted to certify the 2020 election. In a statement on Jan. 6, he called the rioting at the Capitol and criticism of the Capitol Police “disgraceful.” He praised Pence for refusing to overturn states’ electoral votes and also signed a letter to congressional leaders stating that Congress “doesn’t have the authority to overturn a state’s elector votes” and that its duty is only to count the votes sent to them by the states.
Elected in 2010, Scott represents Georgia’s 8th Congressional District, near Macon.
Voted against certifying 2020 election results
Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigan, a retired Marine lieutenant general, voted against certifying the Electoral College results on Jan. 6, and he was also a signator to an amicus brief supporting a Texas lawsuit to overturn the results of the presidential election in Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan — all states that Trump lost.
Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, who is serving his second term in Congress, also voted against certifying the election. He was also nominated for speaker against McCarthy in January in rounds 4, 5 and 6 of the 15 rounds of voting.
He described himself during his first primary campaign as a “Trump-supporting, liberty-loving, pro-life, pro-Second Amendment Black man.” He went on to defeat his GOP opponents by just over 770 votes.
Donalds voted against raising the debt ceiling earlier this year.
Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee. He announced his candidacy on Friday.
Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, elected to Congress in 2016, is an attorney and a former radio host.
Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama has been in the House since 2015, and he currently serves as the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. He supported Jordan as the nominee for speaker. Palmer used to be the president of a conservative think tank in Alabama.
Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas previously chaired the House Rules Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee. Sessions, who has been in Congress for 24 years, announced his candidacy on Friday.
Read more here about the candidates running for speaker.
Scott MacFarlane, Aliza Chasan