CNN
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When House Republicans elect a new speaker this week, the only question is not whether, but how far, they will move the party to the right.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, the two announced candidates, represent different strains of modern conservatism, with Jordan more unreservedly identifying as an acolyte and collaborator of former President Donald Trump, including in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. But both Scalise and Jordan present much more conservative alternatives to Kevin McCarthy, the ousted speaker who always appeared more focused on his personal ascent than any ideological mission.
It’s nearly certain that the GOP House leadership over the next few days will tilt further to the right, absent a Scalise-Jordan stalemate that causes a less ideological alternative to emerge – or a comeback from McCarthy, who refused to rule himself out in interviews Monday. A victory for either Scalise or Jordan would parallel and reinforce the movement underway in the Republican presidential race.
On that front, Trump has established himself as a dominant front-runner, while embracing an agenda and rhetoric arguably even more vitriolic and divisive than during his presidency, including a recent declaration that undocumented migrants were “poisoning the blood of our country” and a suggestion that the outgoing chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be executed.
The speakership succession in the House and Trump restoration in the presidential race are both pushing the GOP in the same direction – toward a 2024 message and strategy focused overwhelmingly on the priorities and grievances of its base voters.
The combination of another Trump nomination and a House GOP leadership more firmly rooted in the right could help the party generate enormous turnout next…
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