The Pride

Chapter 23 of The Briefing: Tom Emmer (R-MN-06), Part Six — The Agreement.

On October 3, 2023, the House of Representatives removed its Speaker. Eight Republicans joined every Democrat to vacate the chair. It was the first time in American history. The chamber could not conduct business without a Speaker. For 22 days, the House was frozen.

During those 22 days, no legislation moved. No committee hearings were held. No constituent casework requiring floor action advanced. In MN-06, the Medicaid enrollees, the veterans, and the manufacturing workers waited for a functioning government.

Four candidates sought the gavel. One — Jim Jordan — failed to secure a majority on three consecutive floor votes and withdrew. Three remained. All were senior leaders. They were separated not by ideology but by a single vote cast nearly three years earlier.

Mike Johnson of Louisiana was a constitutional lawyer. He had led an amicus brief effort, signed by 126 Republican members, arguing that changes to state election laws during the pandemic gave Congress grounds to challenge the 2020 results. On January 6, 2021, he voted against certifying the presidential election.

Steve Scalise, also of Louisiana, was the Majority Leader. He had supported the Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the results. He had objected to certification. When asked directly whether the election was stolen, he refused to answer. He was not the architect of the legal theory. He was a participant.

Tom Emmer of Minnesota was the Majority Whip. He had also supported the Texas lawsuit. But on January 6, when the votes were counted, he voted to certify the election results.

One vote. On a question that, in any previous Congress, would not have been a question at all.

On October 24, Emmer won the Republican nomination for Speaker in a closed-door ballot.

That afternoon, the former president posted on Truth Social. Emmer, he wrote, was a "Globalist RINO" — a Republican in Name Only. His election would be "a tragic mistake."

To an ally, according to Politico reporting, he said: "He’s done. It’s over. I killed him."

Members who had voted for Emmer that morning reversed their positions publicly. Four hours after winning the nomination, he withdrew.

The next day, Mike Johnson was elected Speaker. Johnson had done the most to challenge the election results. Scalise, who had objected but not architected, was passed over. Emmer, who had certified the results, lasted four hours.

The sequence was not an outlier. Of the ten House Republicans who voted to impeach the former president after January 6, eight were gone within two years — defeated in primaries or retired rather than face them. Liz Cheney lost her Wyoming primary by 37 points. The survival rate for Republicans who broke on this question was 20%.

The enforcement is visible in the voting record.

In the 119th Congress, across six major bills that passed with bipartisan support, 205 of 218 Republicans voted with leadership on every single one. Not one break across six votes. Twelve members broke once — on the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin bill that exempted the president — whose family held stablecoin interests — from disclosure. One member broke twice. No Republican broke three times.

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll found 75% of Republican voters support allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. The representative voted against it. A Peterson Foundation survey found 97% of the president’s voters consider the rising national debt a critical issue. The representative voted to add between $3.1 and $4.7 trillion. The polling says one thing. The votes say another. The wall between them is the conference.

In October 2021, two years before the Speaker race, the House voted to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress. Bannon had refused to comply with a subpoena from the January 6 committee. Emmer voted against the contempt finding.

Two years later, media operations associated with Bannon amplified the attacks that ended Emmer’s Speaker bid.

After the Speaker race, the public record shows a shift.

Emmer endorsed the man who had ended his candidacy. He became chairman of the president’s reelection campaign in Minnesota. His loyalty score, documented in an earlier chapter, moved from the middle of the conference to 13th of 221 Republicans.

The bills he whipped changed too. He delivered the legislation the president demanded — 215 to 214.

In an interview after the Speaker race, Emmer described his relationship with the president.

The community sees the votes. 99% loyalty. The opinions are private.

In the 119th Congress, at 99% loyalty, the representative has not been the primary sponsor of any enacted legislation targeting MN-06’s top employment sectors — manufacturing, healthcare, retail, construction. The opinions are private. The record is public.

Sources

Minnesota Historical Society records; congressional voting records; FEC PAS2 bulk data; VoteView data; news coverage of January 6 aftermath and Speaker race.