—
Georgia Republican Rep. Austin Scott is seeking the House speakership after House Majority Leader Steve Scalise dropped out of the race on Thursday to create a replacement for Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan.
Scott announced his intention to serve as speaker on Friday Post on Xformerly known as Twitter: “I have applied to serve as Speaker of the House. We legislate in Washington and I hope to lead a House that has the best interests of the American people at heart.”
Scott, an ally of ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, told he decided to run because “we have to do the right thing in the right way. That’s something we as a conference are not doing right now.” ”
“When I woke up this morning, I had no intention of doing this. It took me a long time to find my wife and tell her to call all our friends and pray because we hadn’t done any preparation for this or any whipping Or anything,” he said Friday.
Scott said Rep. Frank Lucas will nominate him at the Republican convention.
The seven-term representative told ‘s Manu Raju on Thursday that Republicans’ inability to elect a new speaker “makes us look like a bunch of idiots.”
“We just have a small group of people who have to do everything their own way. We had a group that undermined Speaker McCarthy and now we have another group that undermined Steve Scalise, and they are great people. ,”He said.
Scott faces Jordan, who is also seeking the speaker’s gavel after McCarthy was fired this month and declined to run again. The Republican conference voted to nominate Scalise to replace Jordan, who withdrew from the race Thursday after House Republicans failed to unite behind him.
Earlier this month, Scott criticized Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy as speaker and said Republican leadership “must decide to either hold these members accountable or lose the confidence of the rest of the conference.”
“The eight Republicans who support Joe Biden and the Democrats who want to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy are nothing but liars who are handing over control of the House of Representatives in the name of their own glory and fundraising,” he said in a statement. To the Democrats.” stated.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Georgia, Scott owned and operated an insurance brokerage firm for 20 years. He began his political career in the Georgia House of Representatives in 1997 and served until he was elected to Congress in 2011.
Scott represents Georgia’s 8th Congressional District and serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Armed Services Committee, and the House Agriculture Committee.
