Scalise Scrounges for Votes as G.O.P. Speaker Fight Drags On

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana scrounged on Thursday for the support to be elected speaker as Republicans balked at rallying around their party’s chosen candidate, leaving the House leaderless and the G.O.P. in chaos.

A day after being narrowly nominated for speaker during a closed-door secret-ballot contest among House Republicans, Mr. Scalise, their No. 2 leader, remained far from the 217 votes needed to be elected on the House floor. Supporters of his challenger, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, said they were not giving up, citing the hard-right lawmaker’s popularity with the Republican base.

Entering a closed-door meeting of Republicans in the basement of the Capitol, several supporters of Mr. Jordan pledged to fight on.

“The momentum is with Jim,” Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee. “We should stay late. Get up early. We should work this weekend. We should get it done.”

Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, another supporter of Mr. Jordan’s, suggested that some lawmakers who backed Mr. Scalise privately would not want to cross their party’s most ardent supporters, particularly after former President Donald J. Trump endorsed Mr. Jordan, a founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus.

“You may have some people who privately voted for Scalise but publicly won’t do that,” Mr. Massie said.

Adding to the drama, Mr. Trump weighed in on Thursday against Mr. Scalise, arguing that he was unfit for the post because he is battling blood cancer.

“Steve is a man that is in serious trouble, from the standpoint of his cancer,” Mr. Trump said on Fox News Radio, adding later: “I just don’t know how you can do the job when you have such a serious problem.”

Some top Republicans also were refraining from publicly rallying around Mr. Scalise, instead allowing the resistance to him in their ranks to fester. Mr. Jordan had yet to make a full-throated endorsement of Mr. Scalise despite indicating his support. And Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the ousted former speaker who has an icy relationship with Mr. Scalise, said the Louisiana Republican had overestimated his backing and might be unable to recover.

“It’s possible; it’s a big hill, though,” Mr. McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol as he entered a meeting with Mr. Scalise. “He had told a lot of people he was going to be at 150. He wasn’t there.”

It was the latest remarkable turn in a saga that has been marked by whiplash, shifting alliances and petty grudges. The situation has highlighted major changes in the nature of the House Republican conference, whose members once dutifully lined up in support of their chosen leaders but increasingly appear to be pursuing a strategy of every member for themselves.

The uncertainty has hobbled the House at a time of crises at home and abroad, with U.S. allies at war in Israel and Ukraine and a government shutdown looming next month if Congress cannot reach a spending agreement.

Some Republicans were already discussing the possibility of dumping Mr. Scalise and rallying around an alternative candidate who would be able to unite their ranks in a way that he has been unable to. Among the names being mentioned were Representatives Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the Rules Committee chairman, and Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina, who was named the interim speaker after Mr. McCarthy’s removal.

Mr. McHenry indicated he was not whipping votes for any candidate, including himself, as he tried to stay as a neutral arbitrator of the process.

“I’m trying to serve as the facilitator for us to get a speaker elected,” he said.

Still, Mr. Scalise and his team were laboring to build his support, working the phones and taking one-on-one meetings with holdouts. Amid the uncertainty, the House convened momentarily at noon but Republicans quickly called a recess as they assembled for a private meeting to figure out a way forward.

Inside the gathering, Mr. Scalise was fielding questions from his colleagues and Republicans were venting their complaints, in what Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin compared to “Festivus,” a parody holiday dedicated to the airing of grievances.

Representative Steve Womack of Arkansas, who is supporting Mr. Scalise, suggested that some of his colleagues were playing games with the speaker’s race and urged a quick floor vote.

“We need to know what the numbers are. Right now, it’s just kind of conjecture. People can say one thing, tweet something else,” Mr. Womack said, adding: “It’s important at some point in time for us to be able to get to the floor and in the broad daylight, in front of everybody, say who we’re for.”

The range of objections to Mr. Scalise ran the gamut, crossing ideological and regional lines and reflecting the many competing factions among House Republicans.

Some detractors were simply loyal to Mr. Jordan or Mr. McCarthy. Some believed Mr. Scalise was not aligned enough with Mr. Trump’s agenda or the demands of the Freedom Caucus, though he is deeply conservative. One member countered that Mr. Scalise was too aligned with Mr. Trump and failed to respect the results of the 2020 election. Another, Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, criticized Mr. Scalise on national television over a meeting he attended decades ago with white nationalists, for which he has apologized.

Still others, such as Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, cited Mr. Scalise’s cancer diagnosis. And some complained he had not paid them enough attention.

Representative George Santos of New York, who is under federal indictment on fraud allegations, said on the social media site X that he had yet to hear from Mr. Scalise by Wednesday night. “So I’ve made my decision and after 10 months and having had 0 contact or outreach from him, I’ve come to the conclusion that my VOTE doesn’t matter to him,” Mr. Santos wrote.

In private meetings, Mr. Scalise was offering a number of promises to try to win over holdouts, in a scene reminiscent of what Mr. McCarthy went through during his 15-round slog to be elected speaker in January.

Mr. Scalise discussed altering House rules with Representative Chip Roy of Texas, the policy chairman of the Freedom Caucus, who said he was “not happy” with the way the Louisiana Republican’s team shot down his ideas in a conference meeting. Mr. Roy also noted that Mr. Scalise had only a “thin” lead over Mr. Jordan, whom he defeated by only 14 votes.

Mr. Scalise was gaining ground with a few of his critics, but losing some as well. He flipped Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida on Wednesday night by promising to continue the impeachment inquiry into President Biden that Mr. McCarthy had ordered and efforts to defund the investigation by Jack Smith, the special counsel, into Mr. Trump.

But Ms. Luna switched back on Thursday after Mr. Trump cited Mr. Scalise’s cancer as a reason he should not be speaker.

Annie Karni, Catie Edmondson and Karoun Demirjian contributed reporting.