The U.S. House of Representatives will have a chance to elect the chamber’s first speaker from Alabama in more than 80 years.

Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Hoover, launched his candidacy for the crowded race over the weekend.

The announced candidates to the House Republican Conference also include Jack Bergman (Michigan), Byron Donalds (Florida), Tom Emmer (Minnesota), Kevin Hern (Oklahoma), Mike Johnson (Louisiana), Austin Scott (Georgia), and Pete Sessions (Texas).

Palmer, a five-term Republican representing suburban Birmingham, is among eight Republicans vying to lead the House.

If he is victorious on Tuesday, Palmer, 69, would become the second Alabamian to become speaker and the first Republican from Alabama in the role.

From June 1936 through September 1940, William Bankhead, a Democrat from Jasper, led the House as speaker. The only Alabamian to hold higher office was Vice-President William Rufus King, who died in Selma a month after being sworn into office in 1853.

The Republicans plan to meet Tuesday to choose the nominee, 21 days after former speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, was ousted.

The turbulent fight over the position, second in line to succession to the presidency, comes as the federal government again risks a shutdown in a matter of weeks if Congress fails to pass funding legislation by a Nov. 17 deadline.

With eight candidates, it could take multiple rounds to choose a nominee ahead of floor voting by the full House, possibly later this week.

Desperate to end the infighting, some GOP lawmakers are demanding that the candidates sign a pledge to back whoever is eventually nominated, as the Republican majority’s rules state.

Who is Gary Palmer?

First elected in 2014, Palmer rose through the ranks to become chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, a post he has held since 2016.

The committee helps establish policy positions for the House’s Republican members and is used as a forum to discuss legislation and policy.

Palmer’s role within the Republican conference closely aligns with his work before he took political office eight years ago.

He came to office after a grueling six-week GOP runoff and, before that, a months-long primary campaign, following the retirement of Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills, after 22 years in Washington. Palmer easily won the general election in the deeply Republican district.

For 24 years, Palmer was president of the Alabama Policy Institute, a conservative think tank whose research helps lawmakers in Montgomery formulate public policies.

Palmer was also a founder of the State Policy Network, an umbrella organization for various state-based think-tanks. He served on the network’s board for six years, including two as chairman.

Palmer, who grew up in Hackleburg in northwest Alabama, also has brawn to go with his policy wonk persona. Palmer walked on at the University of Alabama, where he played for Bear Bryant — despite not having any high school football experience.

Palmer recalled when Bryant had a private interview with him and told him he would be putting on pads for the first time in a junior varsity game against Georgia Tech.

“I felt like about a 4-year-old, but he told me I’d worked hard and that I’d done a good job,” Palmer said during his first campaign.

“He said, ‘I’m not going to guarantee that you’ll get in the game, but I’m going to dress you.’ He got up and shook my hand and put his hand on my shoulder, and walked me out of his office out into the hall. And I wouldn’t change anything for that,” Palmer said.

“The reason I did it was I thought, ‘I don’t wanna wake up one day at 50 years old and regret not trying,’” he recalled. “And that’s how I lived my life — I think you have to try. And I am so glad that I did.”

Facing another election

While Palmer is focusing on the speaker’s race, he has another contest closer to home: The congressman is being primaried by businessman Gerrick Wilkins.

Wilkins said he is running in the Republican primary against Palmer because the congressman reneged on a pledge he made nine years ago not to run for more than five terms.

Palmer signed a pledge to back legislation barring House members from serving more than three terms, or six years, and U.S. senators from serving no more than two terms, or 12 years, in office.

The pledge did not state that signers would have to abide by those terms themselves, as pointed out by Palmer’s spokesman, but the congressman made a personal pledge to serve no more than five terms in office when he first ran.

“I own that. I said I would serve only five terms,” Palmer told Alabama Today in March.

Palmer said another candidate at a forum nine years ago made the pledge and he followed suit without consulting God.

“I didn’t pray about it,” Palmer said, according to Alabama Today. “Sometimes you get ahead of God.”

The Alabama congressman contended he planned on abiding by the pledge until early March, when he prayed to God “for clarity” on his decision.

“I need to change my mind, so I am going to run again,” Palmer told Alabama Today. “God still has a plan for me. I need to change my mind, so I am going to run again. I know I am going to have detractors. I know people are going to question. I would rather not have it.”

Where does he stand?

“Because of reckless government policies, Americans across the country are struggling to make ends meet, to afford groceries, gas and other everyday necessities. Families are worried about the safety of their children because our cities are riddled with crime and fentanyl is flooding across our borders,” Palmer said in his Sunday speaker’s run announcement.

“If we ignore these issues, America will decline into the footnotes of history. This doesn’t need to be our future, but how do we change our course? It starts with steady, conservative leadership.”

On Monday, Palmer unveiled “Palmer’s Principles,” or his platform in his bid to become House speaker, in which the Alabama congressman appeared to take digs at the candidates with higher national profiles.

“Congress has been kicking the can down the road since before I was elected,” Palmer said in a statement late Monday afternoon. “We don’t need a person or a personality, we need a plan. That is what I can bring to the American people as Speaker of the House. My plan to bring stability back to the House consists of five commonsense points.”

The “Palmer Principles” include:”

Fund the government on time with all single subject appropriations bills passing the House by June 30th

• Real spending cuts, NOT budget gimmicks
• No short term CRs
• Enforce a true 72-hour rule allowing members and the American people time to review legislation
• Unite the Republican Conference before going to the House floor

Palmer is a prominent House Energy Committee member who had influence over an energy package that passed the House earlier this year but stalled in the Senate, The Washington Examiner reported.

“The bill includes his provisions defunding the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund under the Inflation Reduction Act, and another that would prevent the implementation of an Energy Department efficiency rule regulating gas stoves,” the report stated.

Seven out of the eight candidates, with exceptions to Reps. Emmer and Scott, voted to decertify the 2020 Presidential election after the Capitol Insurrection.

That issue cost Rep. Jim Jordan support last week in his run for speaker, Roll Call reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.