Rep. Louie Gohmert offered himself up as an alternative to House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday, ahead of the House’s formal vote this week.
In his announcement on Fox News, Gohmert, a Texas Republican, criticized Boehner in particular for his role in a congressional spending agreement last month that kept the Department of Homeland Security funded through February, leaving the president’s executive action on immigration untouched.
“You said you’d fight amnesty tooth and nail,” Gohmert said. “You didn’t. You funded it.
“It was a terrible strategy, and it follows a number of years of broken promises,” Gohmert added. “It’s time for a change.”
With Gohmert’s announcement, he joins Rep. Ted Yoho, a Florida Republican, who also announced this week that he will challenge Boehner for the speakership.
Aside from Gohmert and Yoho, two other Republicans, Reps. Jim Bridenstine and Thomas Massie, have so far made public their plans to oppose Boehner.
That still leaves dissatisfied conservatives far from the number of votes they would need to unseat the speaker, and Boehner is expected to win another term with relative ease next week.
