Could Steve Scalise become Speaker of the House?

© Provided by WWL Radio New Orleans Could Steve Scalise become Speaker of the House?

It began with a tweet from a Fox News White House Correspondent: “GOP source sees below tweet, texts me ‘Knives are out for Kevin McCarthy, if he is under 225, expect Scalise to make a move quickly for speaker.’”

Second GOP source sees below tweet, texts me “Knives are out for Kevin McCarthy, if he is under 225, expect Scalise to make a move quickly for speaker” https://t.co/AQF55yZaGM

— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) November 9, 2022

Could Scalise become the House Speaker if McCarthy is punished for a poor showing on election night?  It seems entirely possible, especially since he just opened up on his desire to serve as Majority Leader.

WWL went to two political analysts for comment: Pearson Cross and Jeremy Alford.

“When I first heard that there might be repercussions for McCarthy for the weak showing I was wondering what kind of affect that would have on Scalise’s chances,” Cross continued.  “Scalise has been playing his cards very carefully, building his contacts developing an amazing fund raising machine, and staying in the background, staying out of the line of fire.  So I would expect him to make a strong move for the Speaker’s position.”

Both Political Analysts say Scalise has the where-with-all to make a run for Speaker should there any opposition to McCarthy moving into the seat.

“I would say it is a fair description to say that Steve Scalise could step up and possibly run for Speaker of the House,” says Jeremy Alford, editor of La Politics Weekly.

Alford even gave Scalise a pretty fair endorsement, saying: “Steve Scalise is incredibly capable of leading this party.  Most people don’t realize but in terms of policies, Steve Scalise has really become the go-to-guy.”

On Wednesday evening Scalise formally announced he is in the running for Majority Leader, the number two spot behind the Speaker of the House of Representatives.