AMNA NAWAZ: Nine Republicans are jockeying to serve as speaker of the House after several failed votes and a weeks-long stalemate over the future of the chamber.

This evening, the candidates are pitching their plans to unite a divided House Republican Conference in a closed-door candidate forum.

Joining me now from the Capitol is Washington post's Leigh Ann Caldwell.

Leigh Ann, welcome back.

So, day 20 without a speaker now.

Three have tried and failed, Mr. McCarthy, Scalise and Jordan, nine new contenders.

Does any one of them stand out as someone who could gain the 217 votes needed to secure the speakership?

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, The Washington Post: It's going to be a very tough pass to that 217, nine candidates across the ideological spectrum with differing levels of influence and experience in this party.

But there's three that I'm watching.

The first is a Majority Whip Tom Emmer.

He's the number three Republican in the House of Representatives.

He has deep relationships with a lot of members.

He's responsible for a lot of members who have their seats because he was head of the Campaign Committee.

And then there's Kevin Hern, who's a conservative and who leads the largest caucus within the Republican Conference.

And then there's Byron Donalds.

He's a relatively newcomer, but he's conservative.

He's a member of the far right Freedom Caucus.

But people like him.

And so those are the three people that I'm watching, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: Leigh Ann, Tom Emmer is only one of two of those nine who did vote to certify the 2020 election results.

Does that help or hurt his chances in any way?

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL: I think that that vote specifically is not going to have much of an impact.

But what will have an impact is Donald Trump and his supporters.

Donald Trump doesn't like that Emmer voted to certify the election.

They have had a tense relationship.

And my sources are telling me that, behind the scenes, Donald Trump is pushing his allies to slam Emmer, to make sure that he does not win the speaker's race.

Now, Donald Trump isn't going to say anything publicly negative about Emmer, but that behind-the-scenes could influence some Republican close allies of Trump who serve here in Congress.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Leigh Ann, are the Republicans doing anything differently this time in terms of the process that could help them avoid the gridlock of the past?

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL: They're not.

And it's going to be more complicated, because there's not just one candidate or not just two candidates.

There's nine candidates.

So they have to whittle that down just to one, which is going to be contentious.

And then, of course, they have to go to the House floor and get a majority of the House.

That's about 217 members.

No Democrat is going to support any of these people.

So it has to be done with all Republicans.

They can't lose more than four votes.

And so it's going to be still very complicated.

And I'm not sure if there's going to be a speaker at the end of this week, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: In 30 seconds we have left, is this the universe of people who could be speaker, or are there other candidates who could emerge longer this goes on?

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL: I think that the backup option, which failed last week, was just to give the temporary speaker, Representative Patrick McHenry, some more powers for just a limited amount of time.

That's something that Democrats would support.

Republicans weren't ready to go down that path yet, but that is kind of maybe the final option that we're going to keep watching if any of these nine fail.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, Leigh Ann Caldwell of The Washington Post joining us from Capitol Hill.

Leigh Ann, thank you.