Tom Emmer Is The Latest GOP Nominee For Speaker Of The House: What's Next For Crypto-Friendly Candidate?

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made history as the first person to be voted out of the position in U.S. history.

Since the California Republican was voted out earlier this month, the Republican-led House of Representatives has struggled to come to an agreement on who will take over the post. On Tuesday, the House GOP chose U.S. Rep Tom Emmer of Minnesota as its latest nominee. 

Here’s the latest update on the speaker of the house race.

What Happened: The Republicans previously nominated U.S. Reps. Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan to become the next Speaker of the House, but both candidates failed to win the majority of votes required to take the position.

On Tuesday morning, the Republican members of the House of Representatives held a secret ballot vote to decide who they would nominate for speaker, as reported by CBS.

Tuesday’s vote began with seven candidates after U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama announced he was dropping out.

The seven candidates the Republicans started the day with were:

• Tom Emmer of Minnesota
• Kevin Hern of Oklahoma
• Jack Bergman of Michigan
• Byron Donalds of Florida
• Mike Johnson of Lousiana
• Austin Scott of Georgia
• Pete Sessions of Texas

Under the rules of the Republican conference, a candidate needs to obtain a majority to win the nomination. If no candidate receives a majority of votes, the candidate with the lowest vote total in each ballot round is eliminated.

The first ballot Tuesday saw Sessions eliminated with the lowest vote total. Emmer received the highest vote total. In the second ballot, Bergman was eliminated with the lowest vote total. The third round saw Scott eliminated with the lowest vote total.

A fourth ballot saw two candidates eliminated, with Donalds voluntarily withdrawing and Hern being dropped from the ballot due to having the lowest number of votes.

Emmer led in the fourth ballot with 107 votes to 56 for Johnson. A fifth ballot saw Emmer emerge victorious, making him the GOP speaker candidate. 

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What’s Next: After winning the Republican nomination Tuesday, the GOP representative will now go to the full House of Representatives for a vote. It is unclear if the vote will be held Tuesday or at a later date. 

A total of 217 votes are needed to win the majority and become the next speaker of the house. Jeffries and Jordan failed to win a majority, reaching vote totals of 212 and 200, respectively.

Of the speaker candidates in play Tuesday, Emmer and Scott were the only two who voted to certify the 2020 presidential election.

Emmer previously condemned the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. 

Emmer, who is 62, has served in Congress since 2014 and serves as the majority whip of the House of Representatives.

Emmer is known by many for his support for cryptocurrency legislation, which could make his nomination and potential role as speaker a catalyst for major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin BTC/USD.

While in Congress, Emmer has supported several cryptocurrency regulation efforts and also opposes the issuance of CBDCs by the Federal Reserve.

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