WASHINGTON – U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer overcame a field of challengers to become the GOP nominee for speaker on Tuesday, making the Minnesota Republican the latest to face the immense challenge of winning enough support on the floor to win the role.

Republicans started the process on Tuesday with seven candidates and went through five rounds of voting to pick Emmer as their nominee amid the party’s dire struggle to find a replacement for former speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“We must come together for the good of the American people and ensure that our best days are ahead,” Emmer said in a letter announcing his bid over the weekend.

Emmer’s nomination sets up a floor vote on his effort to be the highest ranking lawmaker in the U.S. House.

“Everyone knows Tom,” Minnesota GOP Rep. Brad Finstad, who supports Emmer for speaker, said earlier this week about House Republicans. “So there’s no introduction to who he is and how his style is. People know what to expect with him. He’s a steady hand.”

If he wins, Emmer, 62, would make history as the first Minnesota lawmaker to serve as speaker of the house, second in the succession line to the presidency after the vice president. But getting there will be difficult, especially given the severe tensions rippling through the Republican party.

“Do you think that these people that overthrew McCarthy did so in order to just replace him with somebody that is maybe even a little bit more willing to deal with Democrats than he is? It doesn’t make any sense,” said Tim Miller, a vocal Trump critic and former Republican strategist.

Republicans have a razor thin majority in the House, and just four Republicans voting against Emmer could doom his chances at the speakership. Emmer is now the third person the party has nominated this month to try to replace McCarthy.

But shortly before Republicans met to pick their nominee, Democratic U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips signaled he could see a path to helping Emmer become speaker on the floor.

“The dysfunction in the House is a national and global security issue,” the Minnesota Democrat said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I would sit-out the Speaker vote if Tom Emmer will fund our government at negotiated levels, bring Ukraine and Israel aid bills to the floor, and commit to rules changes to make Congress work for the people.”

A small group of renegade Republicans were able to oust McCarthy as speaker on Oct. 3, denying him the GOP support he needed to keep his post. No Democrats crossed lines to keep McCarthy as speaker.

Emmer originally backed House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana to replace McCarthy. But while Scalise won the nomination behind closed doors, he failed to win enough support behind the scenes and never held a floor vote on his speaker ambitions.

The GOP next turned to far-right Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, only for him to fail to win in three rounds of floor voting last week.

During the chaos, Emmer has been a team player. He gave a floor speech backing McCarthy before the then-speaker was ousted and voted for Jordan in all three rounds on the House floor.

Emmer’s political career has taken a series of twists and turns. He served in the Minnesota House for six years before a close loss in his 2010 bid for governor. In 2014, he won the congressional seat held by Michele Bachmann. Emmer served as the chairman of the House Republicans’ campaign arm for two cycles, helping the party to a better-than-expected performance in 2020 and then narrowly winning the majority in the 2022 midterms.

Soon after Republicans won control of the House, Emmer won a heated race to become the third highest ranking House Republican.

In the speaker race, Emmer has also had to contend with antagonism from former President Donald Trump’s orbit. While Emmer was a clear Trump supporter during the 2016 election and also backed him in 2020, Trump allies have gone after the Minnesotan on social media.

“The @HouseGOP is really trying to make Trump hater Tom Emmer the new Speaker of the House,” Laura Loomer, a failed congressional candidate and alt-right provocateur who has attacked Muslims on social media, posted on X.

Emmer’s record shows that antagonism is baseless. He voted against impeaching Trump in 2019 and 2021 and thanked Trump on social media or recent comments he made about the Minnesotan.

In late 2020, Emmer was among the lawmakers who signed on to a last-ditch legal attempt that failed to invalidate 62 of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College votes.

But Emmer did go on to vote to certify the 2020 presidential election following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, breaking away from the Trump hardliners in his own party.

Staff writer Ryan Faircloth contributed to this report.