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DLNews Politics:

Behind closed doors, House Republicans voted Wednesday to select Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise as their nominee for speaker, paving the way for a floor vote to elect a new speaker after Kevin McCarthy's abrupt ouster by a right-wing faction of the caucus. The final vote tally was 113 for Scalise and 99 for Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan.

It was clarified if Jordan could muster enough support from the hard right to win. But he nabbed early support from some of the most conservative members in the conference, including House Freedom Caucus Policy Chair Chip Roy, R-Texas. The nomination process was smoothed for Scalise after a group of Republicans tabled, or killed, an effort to change the rules on how a candidate is selected. That change would have raised the threshold for a majority of the GOP conference, or 111 votes, to 217, or the majority of the entire House.

That is the threshold that a future speaker needs to earn when the full House meets. The interim speaker, North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry, told GOP members that the entire House would meet at 3 p.m. ET on the House floor.

The move was part of a more significant push to re-energize the party ahead of an intense election year. Despite sweeping to power last year, many in the GOP still struggle to avert deep divisions in their chamber. It must be clarified if the chaos over the next speaker will help or hinder those efforts to operate as a more cohesive unit and run government like a business.