--- title: Why the Top House Speaker Candidates Are All White Men description: Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan and Kevin Hern are Speaker candidates in a House where 89% of Republicans are white, compared to half of Democrats canonical: https://time.com/6321085/house-speaker-steve-scalise-jim-jordan-white/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-10-05T20:11:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:52.154Z article:section: Politics og:title: In a GOP House, All the Speaker Contenders Are White Dudes og:description: Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan and Kevin Hern are Speaker candidates in a House where 89% of Republicans are white, compared to half of Democrats og:url: https://time.com/6321085/house-speaker-steve-scalise-jim-jordan-white/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16f6fbed993fd5bb/698a40fd011682443e9837cf/speaker-contender-white-men.jpg?branch=production&width=800&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 800 og:image:height: 450 og:image:alt: speaker-contender-white-men og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: In a GOP House, All the Speaker Contenders Are White Dudes twitter:description: Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan and Kevin Hern are Speaker candidates in a House where 89% of Republicans are white, compared to half of Democrats twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16f6fbed993fd5bb/698a40fd011682443e9837cf/speaker-contender-white-men.jpg?branch=production&width=800&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Are Republicans Really Only Looking at White Dudes for Speaker? > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Kevin McCarthy Will Not Run for House Speaker Again After Historic Vote [Watch (HLS stream): Kevin McCarthy Will Not Run for House Speaker Again After Historic Vote](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GjnHMhdi.m3u8) (2:43)  _Published 2023-10-04. Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job Tuesday in an extraordinary showdown — a first in U.S. history, forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives and throwing the House and its Republican leadership into chaos._  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Oct 5, 2023 8:11 PM UTC  Reps. Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, and Kevin Hern are all contenders to replace Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker. Reps. Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, and Kevin Hern are all contenders to replace Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker. Getty Images (3)  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Oct 5, 2023 8:11 PM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ Deposed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was still lugging a cardboard box of his personal items out of his old office Tuesday evening when the jockeying to replace him got underway. McCarthy’s earnest—if under-valued—deputy, Rep. Steve Scalise, was [looking](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/steve-scalise-speaker-race-rcna118767) for a promotion and wasted no time in starting to court and count votes. So, too, was Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, a hard-right [lawmaker](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/hardliner-jim-jordan-emerges-republican-alternative-us-house-speaker-2023-01-03/) with sharp elbows and little patience for those seeking compromise. Others not-so-subtly [looking](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/04/house-speaker-news/) for their own bump up the leadership ladder include Reps. Tom Emmer, Kevin Hern, Chip Roy, and maybe even McCarthy’s handpicked interim Speaker, Patrick McHenry. For those not familiar with those insiders, one overwhelming commonality stretches across that cohort: they are all white men. That alone shouldn’t be surprising. While the nation is about 59% white, the [current](https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47470) Congress is [74%](https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/representative-118th-congress-rcna64788) white. The difference comes almost entirely from the Republicans. Among the 224 voting GOP lawmakers and non-voting delegates in the House, 199, or 89%, are white, according to a LegiStorm [analysis](https://www.legistorm.com/congress%5Fby%5Fnumbers/index/by/house/mode/race/term%5Fid/65.html?type%5Fid%5B%5D=party&party%5Fid%5B%5D=1). (House Democrats are almost evenly split, with 109 of 215 members identifying as white.) It’s a similar story for gender equality in Congress. Despite attempts in recent years by Republicans to draw more women to the leadership table, 84% of Republican lawmakers are men. (Among Democrats, that figure falls to 56%.) It may not be surprising, but it is frustrating. The reasons for the racial imbalance and inequity are as deep-seeded as they are tricky to change. Much of this country remains deeply sexist and racist, and running for office is historically the province of wealthy individuals. Republicans have tried to increase their foothold in communities of color and with women for the last 20 years, but only in fits and starts. After receiving some well-considered [recommendations](https://www.masslive.com/politics/2012/12/republican%5Fnational%5Fcommittee%5F1.html) for increasing their appeal beyond white men after their loss in the 2012 presidential race, Republicans tossed those ideas in a wood chipper and nominated Donald Trump. It’s still way too early to handicap the race for Speaker. It’s good odds that the full roster is far from set, and any hiccups along the way may deputize new candidates or ditch others. But the first blush at the field reveals a big problem for the Republican Party and its stereotyped image as white dudes running the world between tennis matches at the country club. It’s a striking contrast from the chamber’s [Democratic leadership](https://time.com/6237571/house-democrats-leadership-no-white-men/), where the top four spots are [held](https://www.house.gov/leadership) by three men of color and a woman. Other names have been bandied about for the Speaker’s gavel, though maybe not with as much enthusiasm, such as Rep. Elise Stefanik, a member of the leadership team and ardent Trump [defender](https://www.npr.org/2022/06/20/1105966424/elise-stefaniks-defense-of-trump-around-jan-6-clouds-her-pro-democracy-work-abro), or Rep. Byron Donalds, who in January [tried](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/byron-donalds-house-speaker-political-views-rcna64368) for the top job on six of the 15 ballots it took for McCarthy to finally become Speaker. Rep. Tom Cole, a level-headed pro in his 11th term, has proven himself a talented in-fighter during his time running the leadership-driven Rules Committee and could well emerge as a grown-up choice. (Donalds would make history as the first Black Speaker and Cole as the first Native American.) But even if some in the party are worried about the homogeneity of much of its leadership, it's not hurting them where it counts. The GOP donor base—the real controller of any Speaker’s schedule—is accustomed to having white men show up to shake their wallets loose, and that is continuing to work for now. But the party can ignore the realities of a changing nation for only so long. But Republicans may be on safe ground for now; in the 2022 midterms, [73%](https://www.cnn.com/election/2022/exit-polls/national-results/house/0) of the electorate was white, and those voters broke safely to the GOP by roughly a 60-40 ratio, according to exit polls. Still, the country’s slide away from white majorities is [coming](https://thehill.com/homenews/race-politics/4138228-americas-white-majority-is-aging-out/), but until Republicans have to deal with that reality at the ballot box, there’s no real incentive to do more than pander to voters of color. For the time being, they can find comfort that the most reliable and largest racial bloc is with them by a 20-point margin. The more immediate risk to Republicans is the rising clout of women, who have powered Democratic wins for the last 20 years. They made up 53% of the electorate in 2022 and sided with the Democrats, 53-45\. Their importance will keep growing and flexing. And yet Republicans, at least at this moment, seem content to have a bunch of dudes vying for one of the most visible jobs in politics for the balance of Biden’s first term in the Oval. So, maybe a woman or person of color won’t be wielding the House gavel at this point next week. But Republicans sure would be wise to realize they can’t expect to run the nation forever with just white men in power. The country surely won’t accept that forever. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. 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