The House Republican majority is stuck, one week after the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, with lawmakers unable to coalesce around a new leader in a stalemate that threatens to keep Congress partly shuttered indefinitely.

On Tuesday evening, two leading contenders for the gavel, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, were scheduled to address colleagues behind closed doors at a candidate forum, but they appeared to be splitting the vote.

South Carolina’s Rep. Nancy Mace, one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy, walked into the forum with a red “A” on her white t-shirt in resemblance of a scarlet A.

The shirt appears to be an allusion to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel, “The Scarlet Letter,” in which Hester Prynne is forced to wear a scarlet A after giving birth despite not being married.

Other Republicans voting for the ouster Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Bob Good of Virginia, Matt Rosendale of Montana, and Ken Buck of Colorado.

“I came here to take difficult votes and do the right thing, regardless of the pressure and regardless of the threats (bc there’s been plenty of both). Today I’m voting against 95 percent of my party in the hopes of fixing how Congress operates,” Mace said the day of the vote. “With the current Speaker, this chaos will continue. We need a fresh start so we can get back to the people’s business free of these distractions.”

Both Scalise and Jordan are working furiously to shore up support. Both are easily winning over dozens of supporters, but it’s unclear if either can amass the 217 votes likely needed in a floor vote that could come as soon as Wednesday.

Both conservatives from the right flank, neither man is the heir apparent to McCarthy.

Scalise as the second-ranking Republican would be next in line for the gavel and is seen as a hero among colleagues for having survived severe injuries from a mass shooting during a congressional baseball practice in 2017. Now battling blood cancer, the Louisianan is not a clear lock.

Jordan is a high-profile political firebrand known for his close alliance with Trump, particularly when the then-president was working to overturn the results of the 2020 election, leading to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Trump has backed Jordan’s bid for the gavel.