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House Majority Whip Tom Emmer has dropped out of the Republican race for speaker, the third speaker-designee to drop out in less than three weeks since hardline Republicans ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the position.

Emmer's decision to drop out of the race a mere four hours after Republicans elected him as their nominee sends House Republicans back again to try to find a new nominee after three weeks without a permanent speaker.

Emmer won an election Tuesday against a large field of eight Republicans. Rep. Mike Johnson came in second place after several rounds of voting. Johnson tried to rally holdouts around Emmer without much success.

Former President Donald Trump opposed Emmer shortly after he won the nomination. Trump posted on Truth Social, "Voting for a Globalist RINO like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake!" He said Emmer was "out of touch with Republican voters" and "never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement."

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The new GOP speaker candidates
GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik tweeted the full list of candidates shortly before the candidate forum was to begin this evening. Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida, Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee, Mark Green of Tennessee, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Roger Williams of Texas, are running.

Rep. Ralph Norman said Republicans would expedite the candidate forum by having candidates each give just one-minute speeches before votes begin.