Good morning. Welcome, Nexios today. It's Tuesday, January 3rd. Happy New Year. I'm Nyla Boudou.

Here's what we're covering today. The Economic Outlook for 2023, plus new state laws around

wages and recreational marijuana. But first, the Scramble for the Speakership. That's today's

one big thing.

This morning in Washington, the new Republican-led House convenes to vote for a speaker.

And Representative Kevin McCarthy has been trying to secure the votes from fellow lawmakers.

But it's been an uphill climb. Here's Florida Representative elect Anna Paulina Luna,

speaking in a podcast interview with host Steve Bannon this weekend.

I think right now, a lot of people are not happy about the options. I've gotten a lot of

emails from people telling me that they don't want me to vote for Kevin McCarthy.

Exxios political reporter Elena Train is here with the big picture. Hi, Elena.

Hi, Nyla. I think the big question everyone wants to know is, does

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy have what he needs to secure speaker of the House?

It's unclear. I mean, logically, no, he doesn't. If you look at the numbers of people,

particularly following that Sunday night conference call he had with fellow Republicans.

And so it's going to be very difficult for him to pull this off today. I think the thing that

I'm watching for and what I know a lot of people are telling me just in my conversations is that

a lot of people are less worried about the first ballot. I don't think many people are not

expecting him to win the vote on the first ballot. It's more about paying attention to the second

ballot or potentially the third ballot if it goes that far. And seeing if any of those members

eventually cave and vote for McCarthy at that point once they've had their say, once they've

showed that they tried to oppose him initially and there's no other option, but to vote for him.

...