The House Republican Conference are meeting 10 a.m. for its internal election to select its nominee for speaker of the House.
The two candidates for speaker in the conference are Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan.
The vote comes after eight Republicans and all Democrats voted to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., last week. They will meet in 1100 Longworth, which is the usual hearing room for the Ways & Means Committee.
It is possible that the conference could also vote on internal rules changes ahead of a speaker vote, including voting to raise the threshold for the internal speaker nominee from a simple majority of Republicans to a number high enough to win a speaker election on the House floor with a majority of the chamber. Currently, that number is 217.
The internal conference vote will be via secret ballot. There may be multiple rounds if neither nominee gets enough votes to secure the nomination on the first try.
The earliest the House could vote for speaker would be at 3 p.m. today.
Republicans are hoping to lock up enough votes to ensure their speaker candidate wins on the first ballot of the full House before going to the floor. That means if Republicans don’t have nearly unanimous support for their nominee, the full House vote could be pushed.