Mr. Hern, 61, was nominated by Representative Lauren Boebert, who has been among the far-right, anti-McCarthy holdouts from the beginning.
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Representative Kevin Hern of Oklahoma is the new chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a conservative caucus in the House.
Into the sea of names that have been floated as alternatives to Kevin McCarthy for the House speakership enters one more: Representative Kevin Hern, Republican of Oklahoma, who was nominated on Thursday for the chamber’s failed ninth attempt to choose a leader, and again for the 10th.
Mr. Hern, 61, was nominated by Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who has been among the far-right, anti-McCarthy holdouts from the beginning. On the eighth ballot, Ms. Boebert switched her vote to Mr. Hern from Representative Byron Donalds of Florida, whom the holdouts had previously favored. She nominated Mr. Hern for the ninth and 10th ballots.
Mr. Donalds was also nominated again, meaning there were four official candidates for the ninth and 10th votes: Mr. Donalds, Mr. Hern, Mr. McCarthy and the Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries. (The lawmakers are not bound by the list of nominees and can vote for whomever they want.)
Mr. Hern, an incoming third-term congressman first elected in 2018, is a businessman and former aerospace engineer. According to his congressional biography, he was an aerospace engineer for Rockwell International before losing his job in the wake of the Challenger disaster and becoming an entrepreneur.
He “went from rags to riches and, like myself and many other members, is a small-business owner,” Ms. Boebert said in her nomination speech. “He has lived the American dream. He’s a father, a family man, and as Kevin likes to say, he’s a conservative but he’s not mad about it. We can have a happy warrior leading us.”
Mr. Hern is the newly chosen chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the House, and was one of the 147 Republicans who voted to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Ms. Boebert presented him as “a unifier” who could move the Republican Party past Mr. McCarthy and into formation around an alternative. The ensuing vote showed nothing of the sort.
Even Mr. Hern — who had said earlier, “If I hear my name, it’s something I’ll have to think and pray about before deciding if it’s a job I’ll run for” — did not vote for himself. For the ninth time, he voted for Mr. McCarthy.
In the ninth ballot for speaker, Mr. Hern won three votes.
Source: nytimes.com
