WASHINGTON — The House speaker race is far from over on Capitol Hill. While Republicans selected Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., as their nominee, it’s still not clear if he can rally the support needed to make it through a full House vote.

During a closed-door meeting of Republican members on Wednesday, Scalise edged out Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to become the Republican nominee.  

Scalise’s preliminary victory was a narrow one, 113-99. When the full House votes, Scalise will need the support of almost every Republican in the chamber.

One of those crucial Republican votes is Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., of northern Kentucky. 

“What I’m saying is not only do I not feel comfortable with Scalise’s plan, I think he’s not properly setting expectations,” Massie told reporters after meeting privately with Scalise on Wednesday.

Massie said that Scalise does not plan to leverage an automatic 1% discretionary spending cut if Congress does not pass all 12 appropriations bills by a certain date. This is a detail that Massie championed when then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and President Joe Biden compromised in order to raise the debt limit earlier this year.

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., of Lexington, predicted that there wouldn’t be a united front immediately after the closed-door Republican vote.

“I think whoever comes out of this race is going to be pretty far away from that magic 217,” Barr said Tuesday. “It’s pretty incumbent, in my view, on the candidate that comes up a little bit short tomorrow to do the patriotic thing and stand in the best interest of our conference, and unity, and endorse the other candidate.”

A source with direct knowledge told Spectrum News that Jordan plans to vote for Scalise on the floor and has encouraged his colleagues to do the same.

Last week every Republican member from Kentucky voted to keep McCarthy as speaker, but eight GOP votes combined with all the Democrats were enough to oust him. The only Democrat in Kentucky’s delegation, Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky., of Louisville said he hopes Republicans pick someone soon.

“We don’t root for dysfunction in government. We want the Republicans to go ahead, come out, come to the floor with a person they want to be speaker, elect a speaker and go on with governing.” McGarvey said. “We’re working right now to make sure that the government doesn’t shut down in just a few short weeks and we need speaker so that we can do all the things necessary to prevent that.”

In January, it took McCarthy a historic 15 rounds of voting to secure the speakership.