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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Gustaf Kilander

House speaker – live updates: GOP fails to unite around nominee ahead of vote today

EPA/Getty/AP

GOP rep calls speaker race ‘one of the most embarrassing things I’ve seen’

The House speaker chaos continues to rumble on with the Republican party still failing to unite around a candidate and eight contenders still in the running.

On Monday night, the GOP spent hours behind closed doors in a candidate forum but emerged with no clear nominee.

Nine candidates went into the meeting: Reps Byron Donalds; Mike Johnson; Jack Bergman; Kevin Hern; Dan Meuser; Gary Palmer; Pete Sessions; Austin Scott; Pete Sessions; and Tom Emmer.

But Mr Meuser dropped out early into the meeting, culling the field down to eight.

While some Republicans struck an optimistic note that they will have a speaker by the end of Tuesday, it was clear that there was no real frontrunner.

Mr Emmer is mulled as the favourite but is facing opposition from Donald Trump allies.

On Tuesday, House Republicans are expected to meet again behind closed doors to select a nominee – before taking the vote to the floor.

The fresh round of contenders comes after Rep Jim Jordan was ruled out as the nominated speaker after losing an internal ballot by a large margin on Friday. This came after Mr Jordan lost three votes of the full house.

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