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When Harriet M. Hageman announced her 2022 primary challenge against Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, House Republican leaders quickly endorsed her bid to oust a colleague whose condemnations of former President Donald J. Trump had made her a pariah in her own party.

But one member of leadership remained notably silent: Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican. He viewed backing Ms. Hageman as a violation of what he calls his 11th Commandment, borrowed from President Ronald Reagan: Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican. He waited until Ms. Hageman had defeated Ms. Cheney to throw his support behind her.

Mr. Scalise, a longtime rival to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, is now mounting his own bid for the post. He has pitched himself as the man uniquely positioned to unite Republicans at a moment when they are deeply divided and demoralized after Mr. McCarthys historic ouster last week.

Were so divided; he can unite this Congress, Representative Lance Gooden of Texas said of Mr. Scalise.

His candidacy is the culmination of a steady political climb for a deeply conservative Republican who once described himself, according to a local columnist, as like David Duke without the baggage.

In Louisiana, Mr. Scalise represents the First Congressional District, a place where the fossil fuel industry is king, and where conservatism is rooted in the myth of rugged individualism and, at least in some quarters, a politics of racial resentment. It is where Mr. Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, was elected to the State Legislature in 1989.

Mr. Scalise has suggested that his life and political career have been influenced by those forces. He made the remark comparing himself to Mr. Duke to Stephanie Grace, now a columnist for The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate newspaper, when she first met Mr. Scalise in the 1990s. She wrote that Mr. Scalises point was that the actual governmental philosophy Duke espoused isnt far off from what was becoming mainstream conservative thought, what with its suspicion of taxes, set-asides and safety net programs such as welfare.

(Over the weekend, Ms. Grace endorsed Mr. Scalise for speaker.)

Decades later, those views are as powerful as ever in the Republican Party as Mr. Scalise faces off for the speakership against Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, a founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus.

Mr. Scalise is making the run despite having been diagnosed only weeks ago with blood cancer, for which he has been undergoing treatment. His supporters insist it has not diminished his capacity for the job.

A key plank of Mr. Scalises pitch to his colleagues is that he is a fund-raising powerhouse, second only to Mr. McCarthy. He has raised nearly $170 million over the course of his congressional career to help Republicans win elections. In the 2022 midterm elections, Mr. Scalise spent 112 days on the road campaigning for members and candidates. Over the past five years, his office said, he has given $7.2 million directly to Republican members and candidates and transferred $50 million to the National Republican Campaign Committee.

Kevin McCarthy was fabulous at raising the resources our conference needed, said Representative Ann Wagner of Missouri. The only person second to that is Steve Scalise. Ms. Wagner, a longtime ally of Mr. Scalise, said she had accompanied him on fund-raising swings in which he visited more than a dozen districts in three days.

Over the past year, Mr. Scalise has been marginalized by Mr. McCarthy, who has privately described him to colleagues as ineffective, checked out and reluctant to take positions, and cut him out of all major decision making.

The dynamic was frustrating for Mr. Scalise at the time. But now, his allies believe that the fact that he was not involved in the debt ceiling negotiations with President Biden, which ultimately proved to be a catalyst for Mr. McCarthys downfall, could make him a viable option for the hard-right members who rebelled against the former speaker.

While most far-right Republicans are expected to back Mr. Jordan on Tuesday when they are scheduled to choose a nominee for speaker, Mr. Scalise is imploring them to support him as a second choice. Under the current rules of the Republican conference, whoever receives a majority in that secret-ballot vote will be the partys nominee when the full House meets to elect a new speaker, now expected on Wednesday.

Lawmakers allied with Mr. Jordan are trying to raise that threshold to unanimity, which would put Mr. Scalise at a disadvantage. For now, however, Mr. Scalise has been telling right-wing lawmakers that while he wishes he could be their first choice, he hopes that if he emerges as the nominee, they will at least vote for him on the floor.

His pitch to other Republicans is more straightforward. Mr. Jordan, who has been endorsed for the speakership by Mr. Trump, would have a more difficult time helping vulnerable Republicans win in districts President Biden won in 2020, especially when Mr. Jordan supported primary opponents for 12 sitting members of Congress.

Mr. Scalise arrived on Capitol Hill in 2008, after winning a special election to replace Representative Bobby Jindal, who was elected governor.

A political animal since childhood, he came to Washington wanting to be a part of everything: He joined the Bible study group and the congressional baseball team, where he would play in a Louisiana State University baseball jersey and buy tickets for all of his staff members and their kids. He pushed for a seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, where he became a strong ally of the oil and gas industry. And he quickly rose to become the recruitment chair of the National Republican Campaign Committee and then chairman of the Republican Study Committee, then the largest group of conservative House Republicans.

Mr. Scalise, the first person in his family to graduate from college, grew up in Jefferson Parish, in the suburbs just outside of New Orleans, a region where the population ballooned in the latter half of the last century as white residents fled the desegregating city. Born into a family of Sicilian immigrants, Mr. Scalise used to tell staff members stories about how his ancestors worked in the sugar fields in Garyville, La.

His rise in Washington was rapid. By 2014, he had ascended to the No. 3 position in the House. Then a blogger broke the story that as a state legislator in 2002, Mr. Scalise had spoken at a meeting of a white nationalist group founded by Mr. Duke, a revelation that threatened to derail his political career.

Under intense pressure from Democrats to step down, Mr. Scalise said the speech was a mistake I regret, claiming he did not realize what the group was when he accepted the invitation. At the time, he received a significant nod of support from his old friend Cedric Richmond, then a congressman from New Orleans, who is Black.

I dont think Steve Scalise has a racist bone in his body, Mr. Richmond said then. (Mr. Richmond could not be reached for comment about Mr. Scalises run for the speakership.)

In 2020, Mr. Scalise voted to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol, breaking with a majority of his party, including Mr. Jordan.

Still, Mr. Scalise most often sides with Republicans. He pushed hard for the passage of legislation in 2015 that resulted in the repeal of a 40-year ban on oil exports, handing the oil industry a huge victory. He also played a major role in 2017 in muscling through Republicans $1.5 trillion tax cut law, which primarily benefited big corporations, multimillionaires and other wealthy individuals. A supporter of Mr. Trump, he voted to overturn the 2020 election results and for months afterward steadfastly promoted the lie that the election had been stolen.

In 2017, Mr. Scalise was gravely wounded when a gunman, distraught over Mr. Trumps election, opened fire on members of the Republican congressional baseball team at a practice. The bullet tore up his internal organs, shattered bones and caused major internal bleeding, leaving Mr. Scalise in critical condition.

He had to undergo multiple surgeries and months of work at an inpatient rehabilitation center to relearn how to walk. He returned to the Capitol three months later, walking gingerly with two canes.

Im definitely a living example that miracles really do happen, he said at the time. Today, Mr. Scalise appears almost fully healed. With the help of a shoe with a lifted sole, his gait is now normal.

In August, Mr. Scalise announced that he had been diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer but planned to return to Washington to continue working as he underwent several months of treatment.

Colleagues said that part of his pitch to them over the past few days was that the treatment was going better than his doctors had anticipated and he was in shape to do the job.

They have changed his treatment and shortened into a three-month period of time, down from six, said Ms. Wagner, a close friend. Both Mr. Scalises wife, Jennifer, and his doctors, she added, have agreed that hes more than healthy enough for this challenge.

It is not clear precisely what toll his illness and treatment have taken on Mr. Scalise. He has taken to wearing a heavy-duty mask at news conferences and on the House floor, a striking change for a Republican who eschewed a face covering as the coronavirus pandemic raged, once calling federal mask mandates Democrats masking political theater.

Richard Fausset contributed reporting from Atlanta.

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Scalise, a McCarthy Rival, Seeks to Unite Republicans in Taking His ... - The New York Times

Last month, a federal grand jury indicted Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine on charges of bribery. Menendez allegedly provided sensitive information to the Egyptian government and assisted a businessman whose company certified halal meat imports. Following a text by his wife to an Egyptian contact — “Anytime you need anything you have my number and we will make everything happen” — Menendez expressed his “concern about the stalled negotiations” over a dam on the Nile River to State and Treasury Department officials.

In return, the couple allegedly received more than $500,000 in cash, “much of it stuffed in envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets and a safe deposit box”; gold bars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars; a Mercedes-Benz convertible; payments toward a home mortgage; compensation for a “low-or-no-show” job; and “other items of value.” Menendez, denouncing a rush “to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat,” has pled not guilty.

31 Senate Democrats have called for Menendez’s resignation. Pointing to “shocking allegations of corruption and specific, disturbing details of wrongdoing,” Cory Booker, the other senator from New Jersey, declared that the faith and trust of citizens in his state, which are “essential to our ability to do our work and perform our duties … has been shaken to the core,” and urged Menendez to step down.

The response from congressional Republicans has been dramatically different.

No Republican senators have publicly called for Menendez’s resignation. Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz maintain Menendez deserves a fair trial, a claim no one disputes. While acknowledging the charges are “serious and troubling,” Sen. Tom Cotton declared Menendez “should be judged by jurors and New Jersey voters,” and pointed to the “troubling record of failure and corruption” of the Department of Justice “in cases of public figures.”

At first, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called the evidence in the indictment of Menendez “pretty black and white.” Asked if the senator should resign, McCarthy replied, “Yeah, very much so.” But a few days later, when a reporter wondered whether New York Rep. George Santos — who lied about the universities he attended; his volleyball prowess at Baruch College; employment at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs; Jewish lineage; his mother’s presence at the Twin Towers on 9/11; and has been indicted for fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds — should resign as well, McCarthy changed his tune. “I think George could have his day in court,” he said, “and I think Menendez could have his day in court.” Reminded of his previous statement about Menendez, McCarthy opined, “It could be his choice of what he wants to do, yes.”

Preserving the Republicans’ slim majority in the House of Representatives was a factor in the refusal of all but Sen. Mitt Romney and a dozen GOP congressmen and women to call for the resignation of Santos.

But the elephant in the room is the former president. As McCarthy discovered, demanding that Menendez and/or Santos step down requires explaining why the same logic doesn’t apply to Trump, who has been criminally indicted four times. An explanation neither McCarthy — who told his colleagues in January 2021 that Trump should resign, and then made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to ask forgiveness — nor the vast majority of Republicans want to make.

Nor is this the only recent example of Republicans’ obeisance to Trump.

Republican politicians have avoided commenting on the civil trial for Trump’s company, in which a judge has already found fraud that may result in the dissolution of his business empire. Or when the former president falsely accused Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, of committing “a treasonous act … so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been death.” Republicans in the House, who censured Rep. Adam Schiff in June for “misleading” the American public during investigations of then-President Trump, have not taken any action against Rep. Paul Gosar for tweeting, “In a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung.”

Do congressional Republicans really support law and order, with no one above the law; respect military leaders; and demand high ethical standards for government officials? Or do they sacrifice these principles to the personal and political interests of one man?

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He is the co-author (with Stuart Blumin) of “Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century.”

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Why Republicans in Congress arent condemning corrupt politicians - The Hill

House Republicans, divided and demoralized after the ouster of their speaker this week, are now quietly feuding over how to elect a successor.

The dispute, which erupted on Friday, suggests that the same divisions that led to the downfall of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy are continuing to fester inside the G.O.P. ranks, setting the stage for a potentially bruising contest next week when lawmakers were set to meet to elect his replacement.

At issue is a request made by more than 90 House Republicans on Friday to temporarily change the partys internal rules for nominating a candidate for speaker. In a brief letter to Representative Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina, the interim speaker, and Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, the conference chair, the group requested a special organizational meeting to consider the change. The New York Times obtained a copy of the letter.

In the letter, they asked for an amendment to temporarily raise the threshold to become the nominee. Proponents of the change have been pushing to require a unanimous vote of the Republican conference, instead of the current bar of a majority.

They have presented the idea as a way to foster unity after the deeply divisive ouster of Mr. McCarthy at the hands of eight, mostly right-wing rebels who went against the rest of their Republican colleagues this week.

It would, in theory, avoid a replay of the public chaos that unfolded in January, when the nation watched as the House slogged through 15 rounds of roll call votes until Republicans finally coalesced around Mr. McCarthy, a veteran lawmaker from California.

But supporters of Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the majority leader who is running for speaker, quickly cried foul, arguing that the change would only make it more difficult for him to be elected.

The idea that the fractured G.O.P. conference could unanimously come together behind either Mr. Scalise or the other declared candidate, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, is also virtually unthinkable.

But Mr. Scalises allies believe that he would win a majority over Mr. Jordan, putting him in a strong position to beat the Ohio Republican on the House floor under the current rules.

Changing the rules is going to create chaos and only advantages candidates who cant get to 51 percent in the closed-door vote, said Representative Lance Gooden of Texas, who has said he is backing Mr. Scalise.

Representative Ann Wagner of Missouri, who is also backing Mr. Scalise, said that a last-minute, rushed rule change is really not what the conference needs right now.

We need unity and we need leadership, she said. We should all be prepared to support the nominee who the majority chooses.

She added that there was nothing binding about a conference meeting vote. The only vote that is binding is done in full transparency on the floor of the House of Representatives, she said.

House Republicans were scheduled to meet behind closed doors on Tuesday to nominate a new candidate for speaker by secret ballot, and a floor vote could take place as early as the next day.

Under the current Republican conference rules, whoever emerges from the secret ballot with a simple majority of votes wins. Changing the rules could lead to a much more drawn-out process wherein both candidates would have to battle to get the entire conference behind them.

Mr. Scalises allies regard the effort as a bid by those who are boosting Mr. Jordans candidacy to tilt the scales in his favor. One of the people leading the charge for the change was Representative Chip Roy of Texas, who has endorsed Mr. Jordan.

Mr. McCarthys allies have also been pressing members to sign on, arguing that the rule change would help keep any infighting behind closed doors. The former speaker has long had a rocky and competitive relationship with Mr. Scalise. And the sense among Mr. Scalises backers is that they have a vested interest in helping to elect Mr. Jordan as speaker.

The members who signed the letter come from all factions of the Republican conference. They included Representative Garret Graves of Louisiana, a loyal McCarthy ally, and Representative Bob Good of Virginia, one of the eight hard-right members who voted to oust him.

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Days Before a Vote, Republicans Feud Over How to Choose a New ... - The New York Times

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., appears before the House Rules Committee at the Capitol in Washington on Sept. 22. Gaetz introduced a Motion to Vacate House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that led to the first ouster of a sitting Speaker in American history. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., appears before the House Rules Committee at the Capitol in Washington on Sept. 22. Gaetz introduced a Motion to Vacate House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that led to the first ouster of a sitting Speaker in American history.

With the historic vote in the House of Representatives that removed Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his post atop the chamber, one particular Republican rose to national attention for his role as Congressional disruptor: Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida

After leading the group of hardline Republicans who fought against funding the government and blasted McCarthy for the deal he did to avert a government shutdown, Gaetz delivered a Motion to Vacate, the procedural resolution that can remove a speaker from that position.

But even after the vote and amid searing critique from his fellow Republicans, Gaetz remained defiant.

"I think that this represents the ripping off of the band-aid and that's what we have to do to get back on track," he told reporters in front of the Capitol shortly after Tuesday's vote.

That's a position that is not widely shared in his party, but in his congressional district in northwest Florida, it's a completely different story.

In this file photo, former Florida state Sen. Don Gaetz, R, left, hugs his son, former state Rep. Matt Gaetz, R, after he was sworn in as the newest member of the house on April 15, 2010, in Tallahassee, Fla. Steve Cannon/ASSOCIATED PRESS hide caption

In this file photo, former Florida state Sen. Don Gaetz, R, left, hugs his son, former state Rep. Matt Gaetz, R, after he was sworn in as the newest member of the house on April 15, 2010, in Tallahassee, Fla.

Matt Gaetz has been making political waves in Florida for a long time. The son of Florida's former Senate President, he was first elected to Florida's legislature 13 years ago at 31. Then, in 2016, he ran for - and won - a congressional seat.

Even before that though, he was cementing himself as a self-described 'firebrand,' also the title of his 2020 autobiography.

The chair of Florida's Democratic Party, Nikki Fried, remembers a young, high-school student already stirring things up. As a college student, she helped run a debate tournament that Gaetz appeared in.

"And he was actually kicked out of our student Congress for being disrespectful, disruptive, getting his way or the highway," she recalled. "So unfortunately, these are the patterns of who Matt Gaetz is."

After publication, a spokesperson for Gaetz disputed Fried's account, saying she is wrong and Gaetz has never competed in a student Congress event, nor has he been kicked out of a competition.

When reached for reaction, Fried stood by her story.

Regardless of how he presented himself early in the formation of his political identity, his constituents don't seem to mind the role he plays now. Gaetz's Congressional district on Florida's panhandle is one of the most Republican in the state. He easily won reelection every term since first going to Congress. Still, some conservative Republicans in his district, like Renee Johnmeyer say they began to think Gaetz was all talk and no action.

"I felt like it was a lot of word service," Johnmeyer recalled of her congressman's tenure in Congress, "that he was just saying things and not making things happen."

Johnmeyer is active in the Santa Rosa County Republican Party, right in the heart of Gaetz's district. At a local restaurant for a club meeting, she expressed skepticism about him, but said his actions this week have won him a lot of goodwill with her.

"To see him actually step up and out and do something that will move the party in a different direction, I was happy to see that," she said.

That was a sentiment echoed throughout the meeting.

"Before this happened I had mixed feelings," Sharon Hawthorne, another local Republican Party member, explained of Gaetz. "I liked some things that he did. I didn't like other things he did. But I love the fact that he took this stand for us."

"And I feel like this is the best thing that could have happened for Republicans, for Democrats and for America," Hawthorne said.

Gaetz is no stranger to national media attention, though he often made headlines as more of a troll on Democrats, like when he wore a full gas mask on the floor of the House during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and Democrats' public health measures.

Gaetz also led an attempted breach on the secure facility where impeachment proceedings took place against former president Donald Trump during his first impeachment.

That changed at the beginning of the 118th Congress when Gaetz stood in opposition to Kevin McCarthy in his initial bid for the speakership. Ultimately, McCarthy stood through 15 rounds of voting before receiving enough votes to become speaker. Gaetz did not vote for him once.

An ally and supporter of Trump's, Gaetz firmly aligned himself with the former president during his time in office and has remained by his side since.

According to Adam Cayton, a political scientist at the University of West Florida, that style of politics plays well in today's GOP.

"[Gaetz is] combative, bombastic, conservative, doesn't shy away from very public conflict," Cayton explained. "So, he's tapping into the same strain of feeling that is propelling Donald Trump to the leadership of the Republican party."

In this Oct. 2019, file photo President Donald Trump, right, accompanied by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., left, arrive for Game 5 of the World Series baseball game between the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in Washington. Andrew Harnik/AP hide caption

In this Oct. 2019, file photo President Donald Trump, right, accompanied by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., left, arrive for Game 5 of the World Series baseball game between the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in Washington.

Still, back home, Gaetz's constituents who cheered on his actions aren't sure it will actually pay off for him - or for them.

"It might be a risk for him. I'm glad he did it. In my view, the more Congress doesn't do anything, the better off Americans are," Patty Burke said. She's been local in GOP politics for more than 20 years and has followed Gaetz's career.

But, she's worried the Republican Party might now be seen as a party in disarray. Another Republican at the Santa Rosa County meeting, George Oedsma is less worried about his own party and more worried about the control Democrats still have in Washington.

"Republicans over many, many years, we're always told we have to compromise. But whenever we do, we get nothing and they get everything they want," Oedsma said. "It just seems like that over and over and over again."

As for whether Gaetz's actions will pay off?

"Ask me in a year from now and I might be able to tell you," he said.

Gaetz did not take McCarthy down with the intent of taking the job. He has made it clear that he has no interest in being speaker. It is unlikely he would have the votes to take the job as the polarizing figure in his party that he has become.

The House will need to choose its new leader before it can do any additional legislative business. But even with the 45-day continuing resolution to give Congress more time to fund the government, a potential shutdown is again, just around the corner.

Gaetz is unlikely to waver from his position on a conservative approach to funding the government. The first congressional district in Florida has more federal employees than any other district in the state and is home to a number of military installations, accounting for even more federal spending.

For retired Marine Stan Jandura, also attending the Santa Rosa County Republican Party meeting, that should not even be a consideration. He supports Gaetz's tactics on government spending and on ousting McCarthy.

"It's a colloquial term shutdown. It's not a real shutdown," Jandura said. "Government employees are still going to get their check once it opens back up. So, who does it hurt? It hurts the political party that is up there."

As for what Gaetz might do with his newfound notoriety, he is unlikely to face opposition at home in his heavily-Republican district, nor will he likely face a primary challenger as a moderate Republican would probably not fare as well.

There has been speculation that Gaetz might be eyeing the governor's mansion in Tallahassee, Fla., though he has said he has "no plans" to run for governor. Still, that election would not be until 2026 and there is precedent for a Gaetz-like candidate performing well statewide.

"It's worth remembering that our recent Governor was a Tea Party affiliated rightwing Republican with an anti-establishment brand," Adam Cayton, the political scientist at the University of West Florida said, speaking of current Gov. Ron DeSantis, a former three-term congressman.

For now, though, Gaetz seems laser focused on changing Congress. Because as he tweeted recently, "I know who I work for, and it's not the people in Washington D.C."

"It is the Americans who elected me to change Congress for the better," Gaetz said.

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Matt Gaetz ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his voters in Florida ... - NPR

As a co-founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, once antagonized his partys leadership so mercilessly that former Speaker John A. Boehner, whom he helped chase from his position, branded him a legislative terrorist.

Less than a decade later, Mr. Jordan a fast-talking Republican often seen sans jacket, known for his hard-line stances and aggressive tactics is now one of two leading candidates to claim the very speakership whose occupants he once tormented.

Mr. Jordans journey from the fringe of Republican politics to its epicenter on Capitol Hill is a testament to how sharply his party has veered to the right in recent years, and how thoroughly it has adopted his pugilistic style.

Those forces played a pivotal role in the downfall of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy this past week, though Mr. Jordan, once a thorn in his side, had since allied himself with Mr. McCarthy, a California Republican. Now, the same dynamics have placed Mr. Jordan in contention for the post that is second in line to the presidency, a notion that is mind-blowing to many establishment Republicans who have tracked his career.

That notion that he could go from legislative terrorist to speaker of the House is just insane, said Mike Ricci, a former aide to both Mr. Boehner and Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin. Jordan is an outsider, but hes very much done the work of an insider to get to this moment. Keeping that balance is what will determine whether he will win, and what kind of speaker he will be.

The race between Mr. Jordan, a populist who questions federal law enforcement and Americas funding of overseas wars, and Representative Steve Scalise, a staunch conservative and the No. 2 House Republican from Louisiana, continued to heat up on Friday. Both men worked the phones relentlessly seeking support, including making calls with freshman lawmakers, the Congressional Western Caucus and the Main Street Caucus, a group of business-oriented Republicans.

On Friday, as they were vying for support, a bloc of Republicans were quietly requesting a change to party rules that would raise the vote threshold for nominating a candidate for speaker, which would make it more difficult for Mr. Scalise to prevail.

While Mr. Scalise is amassing dozens of commitments of support, so is Mr. Jordan, which could lead to a bitter and potentially prolonged battle when Republicans meet behind closed doors this coming week to choose their nominee or spill into public disarray on the House floor.

On Saturday, a third possible contender, Representative Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, said he would not run and urged his Republican colleagues to unify behind either Mr. Scalise or Mr. Jordan.

Mr. Jordans rise in Congress to a position where he can credibly challenge Mr. Scalise, who has served in leadership for years, stems from a number of important alliances he has formed over the years. His strongest base of power is his colleagues in the House Freedom Caucus, many of whom consider him a mentor. He has built a solid relationship with Mr. McCarthy, for whom Mr. Jordan proved a reliable supporter and important validator on the right. And he has forged close ties with former President Donald J. Trump, perhaps his most important ally.

In a Republican House that has defined itself in large part by its determination to protect Mr. Trump and attack President Biden, Mr. Jordan has been a leader of both efforts. He leads a special subcommittee on the weaponization of government against conservatives. He has started investigations into federal and state prosecutors who indicted Mr. Trump, and he is a co-leader of the impeachment inquiry into Mr. Biden that Mr. McCarthy formally announced last month as he worked to appease the right and cling to his post. The weaponization subcommittee has spotlighted some examples of government overreach and the impeachment inquiry has produced unflattering information against President Bidens son Hunter, but neither has produced proof of Republicans boldest claims.

Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Jordan for the top House job early on Friday, ending speculation, however unrealistic, that the former president might seek the job himself. (A speaker is not required to be an elected lawmaker.)

Congressman Jim Jordan has been a STAR long before making his very successful journey to Washington, D.C., Mr. Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House, & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!

Mr. Trumps endorsement could help Mr. Jordan garner support from his other fellow House Republicans, among whom Mr. Trump is popular. But it is not expected to seal a victory.

Representative Warren Davidson, an Ohio Republican who is the whip of the House Freedom Caucus and a supporter of Mr. Jordan, said Mr. Trumps endorsement was a positive for Mr. Jordan because Trump is widely viewed as the leader of our party.

But, he said, some more mainstream Republicans arent thrilled about aligning themselves with Mr. Trump.

There are some folks in moderate districts that are like, Well, that might actually complicate things for me, Mr. Davidson said.

Mr. Jordan helped undermine faith in the 2020 presidential election results as Mr. Trump spread the lie that the election had been stolen through widespread fraud. Mr. Jordan strategized with Mr. Trump about how to use Congresss official count of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, to reject the results, voting to object even after a mob of Mr. Trumps supporters attacked the Capitol. His candidacy for speaker has drawn a stark warning from former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who was the No. 3 Republican and vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, who said that if he prevailed, there would no longer be any possible way to argue that a group of elected Republicans could be counted on to defend the Constitution.

In a speech at the University of Minnesota on Wednesday, Ms. Cheney told the audience that Jim Jordan was involved, was part of the conspiracy in which Donald Trump was engaged as he attempted to overturn the election.

Mr. Jordan has defended his actions in challenging the results of the 2020 election, saying he had a duty to object given the way some states changed voting procedures during the coronavirus pandemic.

His quick rise in the Republican ranks was nearly derailed in 2018, when a sexual abuse scandal in Ohio State Universitys athletics program came to light, leading to accusations that Mr. Jordan, who had been an assistant wrestling coach at the time, knew about the abuse and did nothing. Mr. Jordan has said that he was not aware of any wrongdoing.

On Capitol Hill, Mr. Jordan initially worked to build some relationships with Democrats early in his career. He and Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, once teamed up on bipartisan legislation to protect press freedom. He counts former Representative Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio who is now running Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s presidential campaign, as a friend. Even as Mr. Jordan and Representative Elijah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat who died in 2019, sparred over investigations of Mr. Trump, the two men occasionally found common ground on other Oversight Committee issues.

But as Mr. Jordan formed an alliance with Mr. Trump and then became one of his most vocal defenders on Capitol Hill, his relationships with Democrats disintegrated. When Mr. Raskin introduced his press freedom bill this year, Mr. Jordan was no longer listed as a sponsor.

Representative Jim Banks, Republican of Indiana, said that Mr. Jordans true power lay in the love he commands from base voters, built up through years of defending Mr. Trump and advocating conservative policies on Fox News and in combative congressional hearings. Mr. Jordan is known to fly to districts around the country to help raise money for candidates who are aligned with the House Freedom Caucus and even for Republicans who are not.

Mr. Banks suggested that Mr. Jordans credibility with the right could make it easier for the party to unify behind any spending deal he were to cut with Democrats and the White House should he become speaker. Such a deal would be a tall order. Mr. Jordan voted a week ago against a measure to avoid a government shutdown an agreement with Democrats that ultimately drove Mr. McCarthy from the speakership.

Jim Jordan is a trusted conservative; hes well-respected by the base of the Republican Party, Mr. Banks said. So when we get to some of these tough spending fights and Speaker Jim Jordan is negotiating with the White House and the Senate, thats going to help Republicans rally behind him and get to a place where they can vote for those deals.

This is a different Republican Party today than what it was a decade ago, he added. And the Republican Party today is a lot more like Jim Jordan. Its more of a fighting Republican Party.

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From the Fringe to the Center of the G.O.P., Jordan Remains a Hard ... - The New York Times