Matt Gates Will NOT Become Speaker of the House

The only way that this works is if he holds the party hostage. If Gates has like seven votes that commit to not flipping no matter what, he could threaten to tank the GOP winning the speaker ship in that situation. I would say that Matt Gates is probably smart enough to realize that if his profile goes up any higher, people are finally going to put him in jail where he belongs. The role really of the majority leader or the speaker in party leadership is about corralling votes. It's about getting people on the same page.