House Republicans still seeking new speaker

House Republicans are once again scrambling with no clear path to elect a new speaker after voting to push Ohio Representative Jim Jordan out of the race.

Paul Bentz, Senior Vice President of Research and Strategy at Highground Inc., joined Arizona Horizon to discuss the lack of a speaker in DC.

“I think we’re seeing sort of a similar dysfunction we’re experiencing here in the state of Arizona on a national level,” Bentz said. “We have said a lot of times that Arizona is a bit of a microcosm of the country and this is proving to be true, certainly, this week.”

Currently, there are nine candidates in the race:

• Rep. Tom Emmer (Minnesota)
• Rep. Kevin Hern (Oklahoma)
• Rep. Jack Bergman (Michigan)
• Rep. Austin Scott (Georgia)
• Rep. Byron Donalds (Florida)
• Rep. Mike Johnson (Louisiana)
• Rep. Pete Sessions (Texas)
• Rep. Dan Meuser (Pennsylvania)
• Rep. Gary Palmer (Alabama)

“With nine candidates in the race, it’s very difficult to assume someone’s going to get a large majority and bring folks together,” Bentz said. “We’ve got disparate factions here that are competing some. McCarthy backed others that are MAGA-backed. I think it’s important to note that out of the nine people that have thrown their hat in the ring, only two have served in the House of Representatives longer than 2015. That means almost all of the individuals that they have to choose from have only really experienced governing in the era of Trump, or the MAGA era.”