MACON, Ga. — Exactly one week after his surprise bid for House Speaker, Rep. Austin Scott is re-entering the race for House Speaker.
He made the announcement after the Republican caucus rejected Rep. Jim Jordan's nomination for the speaker's gavel.
"If we are going to be the majority we need to act like the majority, and that means we have to do the right things the right way," Scott wrote in his announcement on X, formerly known as Twitter. "I supported and voted for Rep. Jim Jordan to be Speaker of the House. Now that he has withdrawn I am running again to be the Speaker of the House."
Scott, a little-known U.S. representative who serves Georgia's 8th Congressional District, had lost to Jordan in the GOP's previous nomination contest after throwing his hat into the ring last Friday.
Scott, who has represented Central Georgia in Congress over the past 12 years, is a University of Georgia graduate who worked in the insurance industry. He was elected to the Georgia State House in 1996 when he was 26.
However, before his announcement last week, many people in Washington had never heard of Scott.
Four hours after Scott announced his bid, the caucus voted and chose Jordan as the party's nominee.
But after three rounds of voting over the past week and support for Jordan dwindling, Republicans chose to drop Jordan as the nominee in a closed-door meeting Friday.
In the third vote, five more of his Republican colleagues chose to vote no, bringing the total to 25 party members opposing his bid from 20 after his first vote.
With Republicans' narrow majority in the House, any candidate for speaker needs a vast majority of the conference win, and House Republicans have been unable to find a candidate who the party can coalesce behind.
While Scott faced off against only Jordan in last week's nomination contest, more and more representatives are throwing their names into the speaker race. There are at least seven GOP representatives who have decided to run for speaker, according to CNN.
However, one of the heaviest hitters who has previously entered the race for House Speaker, Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise, has confirmed he will not be running.
He was previously nominated — winning against Jordan — but he withdrew his candidacy after failing to gain enough support from the right flank of the Republican party.
Republicans have been trying to elect a new speaker to represent the Republican majority ever since Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted after working with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown at the start of this month.
According to his house website, Scott is a member of the House Committee on Agriculture, where he serves as a Vice Chairman. He is also chair of their General Farm Commodities, Risk Management and Credit Subcommittee.
Additionally, he is a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence where he is on the CIA Subcommittee and the NSA and Cyber Subcommittee.
He also is on the House Armed Services Committee where he also serves on the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations and the Subcommittee on Readiness.