Minnesota Republican Rep. Tom Emmer’s support for legalizing gay marriage was a major reason his Tuesday tenure as the GOP’s speaker-designate lasted only four hours, a sign of how the extremism of the Republican Party is directly contributing to its now three-week-long struggle to elect a speaker.
Emmer voted for the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022, which turned the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling legalizing gay marriage into national law. His vote, which came after years of opposing gay marriage, put him in line with the overwhelming majority of Americans: Earlier this year, Gallup found that 71% of Americans support gay marriage, an all-time high.
This mainstream position ― one shared by 39 other House Republicans at the time ― was too much to overcome for at least a handful of members of the House Republican Conference and likely would have been enough to doom Emmer’s bid, even without former President Donald Trump’s opposition to his speakership nomination.
Conservative Republicans’ demand for total loyalty to the GOP agenda has been the driving force behind the party’s struggle to find a leader, beginning when former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s use of Democratic votes to keep the government open became the pretext for his ouster.
The struggle has kept the House effectively closed, even as a Nov. 17 deadline for funding the government approaches and President Joe Biden has requested billions in aid for Ukraine, Israel and the U.S.-Mexico border.
“He is respected for being straightforward and honest, however he voted for Democrats’ same-sex marriage bill (that codified same-sex marriage) and he has a moderate voting record as rated by many different conservative groups regarding other social/fiscal policy positions,” Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) wrote on social media, explaining his vote against Emmer.
Appearing on Fox Business, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) explained her opposition: “He voted against Trump’s transgender ban in the military; he voted for the Democrats’ gay marriage bill.”
But it was another Georgian, Rep. Rick Allen, who was the most direct in declaring Emmer’s gay marriage vote a problem, bluntly telling CNN “no” when asked if he could possibly vote for the former chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Later, in a closed-door Republican conference meeting, Allen told Emmer he needed “to get right with Jesus” because of his support for gay marriage, according to Punchbowl News.
Gay marriage was not the sole issue cited in explaining opposition to Emmer. Beyond Trump’s opposition to his bid, other Republicans cited his support for aid to Ukraine as a reason they would not back his pursuit of the speaker’s gavel.