Florida Republican Congressman Dan Webster is hoping to replace U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, who announced Friday he is resigning next month.
“I will be running for speaker of the House. My goal is for the House of Representatives to be based on principle, not on power, where every member of Congress is involved in the process,” Webster, a former Florida House speaker from the Orlando region, said in a post on his Facebook page Friday.
Webster made the announcement earlier in the day in a radio interview with host Sean Hannity.
The interview came shortly after Webster, who lost a three-way bid for speaker to Boehner in January, sent an email to supporters saying he was undecided about running for speaker again.
“I do believe that it is time for us to turn a new page in the House of Representatives — one that promotes principle-based policy,” Webster said in the email to potential contributors.
In the email, Webster said he’s been approached by “many members of Congress and supporters, above and beyond those who voted to elect me as speaker in January” to run again.
“What I’ve asked for all along is a principle-based, member-driven Congress … and if I can do that and have the opportunity to do that, I’ll do it. I certainly have an interest in that,” Webster also told an Orlando radio station on Friday.
The conservative congressman has become a Tea Party favorite since his 2010 election, winning 12 votes from his GOP colleagues in the ill-fated attempt to overthrow Boehner in January.
Webster most recently has been embroiled in a redistricting controversy in Florida, with his Congressional District 10 likely to be redrawn to become much more friendly to Democratic candidates.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled in July that current districts in a map crafted by the Legislature violate the state’s “Fair Districts” constitutional prohibitions against gerrymandering.
A Tallahassee judge now has the task of selecting from one of several potential maps, or coming up with his own plan, to send back to the Supreme Court for approval.