The latest developments on the Dan Webster – U.S. House Speaker’s race

The latest on the chaos among House Republicans after Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy withdrew his candidacy for speaker:

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1:59 p.m.

Speaker John Boehner says he will serve in the top leadership post until the House votes to elect his successor.

In the tumult after Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s withdrawal from the race, Boehner issued a statement reiterating his previous pledge. Boehner had said last month that he would resign from the House at the end of October.

The Ohio Republican said that he will announce a date for a new election, and added that he was confident that the House would elect a new speaker in the coming weeks.

The full House was scheduled to vote on the matter Oct. 29.

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1:40 p.m.

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin says he is not a candidate for speaker of the House.

Ryan chairs the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and was the GOP nominee for vice president in 2012. He is widely popular in the Republican conference.

Ryan said that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy “is best person to lead the House” and was disappointed in McCarthy’s decision to withdraw from the speaker’s race.

Ryan said it was important for Republicans to “take time to deliberate and seek new candidates for the speakership.”

Ryan said he is grateful for encouragement he has received to run for speaker but believes he can best serve the country as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

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1:25 p.m.

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy says in a statement that he’s withdrawing from the race to be House speaker after it became clear that Republicans are so divided and it’s necessary to pick a candidate who can unite them.

The announcement by the California Republican came as a shock to his colleagues. He says it’s imperative for the GOP to come together and work together.

McCarthy says he’s always put the interests of House Republicans ahead of his own — and that’s what he’s doing now.

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1:10 p.m.

The White House is trying to make sense of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s withdrawal in the race for House speaker, and says it’s conservatives who put their “extreme ideology” ahead of all else.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says it’s easy to “poke fun at the chaos” triggered by McCarthy’s stunning move. But Earnest says the challenge facing the next speaker is the same one that McCarthy would have faced — and what outgoing Speaker John Boehner had to deal with.

Earnest says the next speaker will have to be able to tame the forces of a small but vocal group of lawmakers who a strong ideological bent — or find a way to “buck up” more mainstream House Republicans.

The spokesman says that means House Republicans must be willing to stop insisting on getting 100 percent of what they ask for amid divided government.

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Material from the Associated Press was used in this post.