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- On Tuesday, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer dropped out of the speaker race.
- Two representatives publicly said they wouldn't vote for him given his vote on gay marriage.
- In 2022, Emmer was one of 39 Republicans to support the Respect for Marriage Act.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer started Tuesday as the leading Republican candidate to become the next speaker. He dropped out of the race before the day even ended, with two GOP members saying he wasn't fit for the job due to his previous support for a federal gay marriage bill.
In 2022, a bipartisan group of legislators in both the House and Senate passed the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that forces each state to recognize same-sex marriages performed in any jurisdiction it's legal, effectively meaning the entire US. President Joe Biden ultimately enacted the bill in December 2022.
Despite at one point introducing an amendment to the state's constitution expressly forbidding Minnesota from recognizing same-sex marriages while he was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Emmer was actually one of 39 Republicans who voted in favor of the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act, and it may have cost him his speakership bid.
Rep. Rick Allen, a Republican from Georgia, told reporters on Tuesday that he was "very concerned" about Emmer's same-sex marriage vote and would not be voting for him. Hours later, Punchbowl News reported that Allen told the hopeful speaker candidate that he needed to "get right with Jesus" because of his past support.
Republican firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also spoke out online against Emmer on Tuesday, saying that she voted against him in every round of voting "because he has a voting record I can't support." She cited Emmer's support of the Respect for Marriage Act, his vote to allow transgender people to serve in the military, and for helping certify the 2020 presidential election.
Greene's statement was not the first time this month she's tied her views on the LGBTQ community to whom she wants as the next speaker. Earlier in October, she appeared on Fox News and said that one of her top priorities was finding a speaker who would bring a bill of hers to the House floor that would severely restrict adults and children from receiving gender-affirming care.
While Allen and Greene's refusals to vote for Emmer did not solely prohibit him from becoming speaker — he still could have won if practically everyone else wanted him as speaker — Emmer faced numerous other Republican holdouts, especially after former President Donald Trump spoke out against him.
As of late Tuesday, Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana has become the newest GOP speaker designate following failed bids from former speaker designates Reps. Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, and Emmer.
In 2022, Johnson introduced a bill akin to the state of Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law, but it was never assigned to a committee.