Following a closed-door candidate forum on Tuesday, House Republicans are sounding increasingly nervous that they will be unable to coalesce around a candidate for Speaker ahead of the anticipated floor vote on Wednesday. One GOP member tells the Sun that if not for the war in Israel, the Speaker’s chair would likely be vacant for more than a month. 

“I’m going to sleep on it,” Congresswoman Kat Cammack tells the Sun after being asked whose name she will be writing down in the Republican conference meeting on Wednesday morning. The only two declared candidates, Congressman Jim Jordan and Congressman Steve Scalise, did not impress Ms. Cammack enough to win her endorsement, she says. 

“The broken trust within the conference” has limited Republicans’ ability to unify around one candidate, she said. 

Congressman Troy Nehls, who originally planned to nominate President Trump for the speakership, speculates that the ex-speaker, Congressman Kevin McCarthy, may emerge as a surprise candidate in the Wednesday meeting because Messrs. Scalise and Jordan have left members wanting. “If it’s very divided between the two and you had a second or third ballot, Kevin McCarthy would probably have more votes than anybody,” Mr. Nehls says. 

On Wednesday, House Republicans will meet at the Capitol Building and cast secret ballots to elect their candidate for Speaker. Should no candidate win an outright majority, then the voting will continue until someone is successful. 

Congressman John Duarte tells the Sun that he will write Mr. McCarthy’s name no matter what, and will continue to do so. “No one reached Kevin’s level in there,” Mr. Duarte tells the Sun, referring to Messrs. Jordan and Scalise. “Not even halfway … He was one of the finest Speakers we have ever had.”

One sticking point for GOP members is whether or not to wait until the entirety of the Republican conference is behind the party’s Speaker candidate rather than have the nominee be chosen by simple majority and then rush the vote on the House floor. 

When the full House votes, a candidate must receive 217 votes if all 433 members are present and voting. Several absences, though, including two Democrats — Congresswoman Mary Peltola, whose husband was recently killed in a plane crash, and Congresswoman Cori Bush, who missed votes last week due to a medical issue — could change the final tally. 

Ms. Cammack tells the Sun that Messrs. Scalise and Jordan are “nowhere near” securing the confidence of the entire caucus. 

Ms. Cammack was deeply troubled, she tells the Sun, about Mr. Scalise’s inability to answer one of the questions she posed during the Tuesday night meeting, which lasted for more than two hours. 

“My question to the candidates was, ‘has someone come to you with a request in exchange for a vote, and if so, what was it?’” Ms. Cammack says. “Only one candidate came out point blank and said that they have told people who come with requests that they will not honor requests.” That was Mr. Jordan, she said. 

The mood was more chipper on Monday evening when House Republicans met in the Capitol Building’s basement to have an “airing of grievances,” as Congressman Jeff Van Drew described it to the Sun. 

Mr. Van Drew tells the Sun that “about” 25 members spoke at the two-hour, closed-door meeting on Monday, which was led by the Speaker pro tempore, Congressman Patrick McHenry, and the chairwoman of the Republican conference, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. 

When asked by the Sun if tension within the House GOP had subsided, Mr. Van Drew said, “to some degree yes,” noting that all of the members inside the meeting were committed to unifying behind whoever wins the GOP Speakership nomination, which is planned to be decided on Wednesday. House Republicans will hold a candidate forum behind closed doors on Tuesday evening. 

The urgency to fill the Speaker’s seat has been increased amid the ongoing war that Hamas launched against Israel on Saturday morning. The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Mike McCaul, tells the Sun that passing an aid package for Israel — which is not possible without a Speaker — has made it clear to every GOP House member that they must coalesce behind a leader as soon as possible. 

“We have $3.3 billion in foreign military financing” that America can currently send to Israel, the chairman tells the Sun, though the Jewish State will likely need “much more” to fight back against the Hamas fighters who have invaded. Mr. McCaul has already begun work on drafting another aid package to be passed immediately by the House once a Speaker is selected, he says. 

Ms. Cammack says that if it weren’t for Hamas launching the attack on Saturday, the House would be Speakerless “for a month,” if not more.