WASHINGTON — All five Republican members from Kentucky voted to keep Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as their party’s leader last week, but now that he has been removed as speaker, those lawmakers have announced whom they will support to replace him. 

Republicans in the House of Representatives met Tuesday evening to hear from the two candidates vying to become House speaker. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., who currently serves as the House majority leader, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who leads the House Judiciary Committee, are running for the position.

A couple of Kentucky members had pledged their support to a specific candidate prior to Tuesday’s closed-door candidate forum. 

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., of Lexington announced last week that he was endorsing Scalise. Barr called Scalise a “uniter” adding that he believes that is what the Republican party needs right now.

“If there’s one example of how Steve Scalise unifies this conference, he has pledged his support of Jim Jordan if Jim Jordan gets the most votes on the first ballot,” Barr told Spectrum News just before entering the candidate forum. “As far as I know, he’s the only candidate who's done that. He’s proven to be someone who is willing to sacrifice for himself for the betterment of the conference to bring everyone together.”

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., of northern Kentucky said he’s supporting Jordan. Jordan co-founded the hardline House Freedom Caucus and although Massie is not an official member of the Freedom Caucus, he has sided with that group of lawmakers on some issues in the past.

“People are expecting Washington to do something different,” Massie wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Both of the people running for Speaker could do the job well, but if we went through all of this just to move everybody up one spot, I think it sends the wrong message. I’m supporting Jordan.”

The earliest the House could bring this to the floor for a full House vote is Wednesday. Back in January, it took a historic 15 rounds of voting to elect McCarthy as speaker. He made concessions along the way to get the necessary votes, including changing the rules to allow just one member to introduce a motion to vacate the office of speaker. That concession ultimately led to McCarthy’s removal from office.