Candidate Steve Scalise announced his withdrawal from the race for Speaker of the US House of Representatives

The statement was made at a closed meeting of the Republican Party held on October 12.

Previously, the Republicans controlling the US House of Representatives nominated Mr. Steve Scalise as Speaker of this legislative body after Mr. Kevin McCarthy was dismissed last week.

Republicans chose Scalise, the No. 2 Republican in the Republican leadership, over House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan. Lawmakers said the vote was 113 for Scalise to 99 for Jordan.

On the same day, the US House of Representatives also postponed the election of a new Speaker to replace Mr. Kevin McCarthy. The vote was scheduled to take place on the afternoon of October 11 (US time) but was canceled and there is no official information about the next steps in the context of the US House of Representatives not having a leader.

Just before the vote, the Republican Party controlling the US House of Representatives could not be sure that all of its congressmen would vote to support candidate Steve Scalise as the next speaker.

In the vote for Speaker of the House, the nominee needs the support of all Republican Representatives to secure a majority of 217 votes when the Republicans control the House with a slim majority of 221-212. The Democratic Party is expected to vote against the Republican candidate to conveniently nominate Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries.

It is possible that the US House of Representatives will have to vote multiple times, because Mr. McCarthy went through 15 rounds of voting in 4 days before winning the position of Chairman of this agency in January this year.

In the internal race to win the nomination, Mr. Scalise pledged to unite party members, seek reconciliation methods to avoid the risk of internal division, causing tension that is detrimental to legislative activities in the House of Representatives.