Boehner Delays Majority Leader Election

Re­spond­ing to calls for time from his mem­bers, House Speak­er John Boehner delayed down-bal­lot lead­er­ship elec­tions on Monday, not­ing they will hap­pen only after the whole House votes to elect a new speak­er on Oct 29.

The in­tern­al GOP Con­fer­ence elec­tion to choose a speak­er will still take place Thursday. But Boehner said in a state­ment that the nom­in­at­ing pro­cess on the floor will wait un­til Oct. 29, a day be­fore he has said he will resign. The oth­er elec­tions will not hap­pen un­til after that, he said.

“After the new Speak­er is elec­ted on Oc­to­ber 29th, the mem­bers of our Con­fer­ence will se­lect the rest of their lead­er­ship team,” he said. “The new Speak­er will es­tab­lish the date for these ad­di­tion­al lead­er­ship elec­tions. This new pro­cess will en­sure House Re­pub­lic­ans have a strong, uni­fied team to lead our con­fer­ence and fo­cus on the Amer­ic­an people’s pri­or­it­ies.”

Boehner’s de­cision comes after Rep. Mick Mul­vaney spear­headed a let­ter to lead­ers call­ing for a delay in the elec­tions for ma­jor­ity lead­er. Ma­jor­ity Lead­er Kev­in Mc­Carthy is the pre­sumed front-run­ner to be­come speak­er, and if he wins, his lead­er­ship post will be­come va­cant. Also run­ning are Reps. Jason Chaf­fetz and Daniel Web­ster.

Ma­jor­ity Whip Steve Scal­ise is fa­cing Budget Com­mit­tee Chair­man Tom Price in the race to be the next ma­jor­ity lead­er, but many mem­bers have raised con­cerns about el­ev­at­ing either and some have tried un­suc­cess­fully to re­cruit an­oth­er can­did­ate to re­place them. Also delayed is a po­ten­tial elec­tion for a new ma­jor­ity whip, which would hap­pen if Scal­ise were to win.

“Our team is strong and grow­ing, and we look for­ward to hav­ing all of these elec­tions take place as soon as our con­fer­ence is ready,” Scal­ise spokes­man Chris Bond said in re­sponse to news of the delay.

Price’s of­fice de­clined to com­ment.