WASHINGTON – Tom Emmer abandoned his campaign to become U.S. House speaker two hours after winning the internal Republican nomination. Emmer, of Minnesota, realized there was no path to the necessary 217 votes in a full House election. He could not gain enough support from the GOP caucus to prevail. Too many Trump supporters in the GOP Freedom Caucus still bear grudges from January 6, 2021, when Emmer voted to endorse the election of Joe Biden over Trump as president. There was too much personal animosity without there being any sufficient ideological commonalities in the fractured GOP majority. “Too many of these people just hate each other,” said one insider.
