Texas Rep. Chip Roy is considering launching a bid for House Republican Conference chair, according to multiple Republican sources, as conservatives fret that the party is moving too quickly to anoint a successor to newly deposed Liz Cheney.

Roy, a member of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, is one of several conservatives to publicly express concern about elevating Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), a moderate turned Donald Trump ally who's moving swiftly to lock down support for the No. 3 post. Notably, Stefanik has the backing of the former president and GOP leaders.

Undaunted, Roy sent a memo to every Republican office in the conference on Tuesday arguing that Stefanik should not be serving in leadership and ticking off a long list of issues with her voting record. He also had been pushing for a delay in the election to replace Cheney (R-Wyo.), which will take place later this week.

“I don’t believe there should be a coronation,” Roy told reporters on Wednesday. “I believe that if the leader wants us to be united, then he should take the time to do this the right way.”

Roy declined to say whether he was considering an official bid for the position, saying “let’s see what happens over the next 24 hours.” But his spokesperson said in a statement that they’re not “ruling anything out.”

“His focus is on serving Texas' 21st Congressional district, the American people, and the Constitution,” Roy’s spokesperson said in a statement. “But if the position must be filled, then this must be a contested race — not a coronation.”

One source familiar with Roy’s thinking said he plans to jump into the race if no one else does. His potential candidacy for conference chair was first reported by The Daily Caller.

But the Texan, a onetime chief of staff to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), doesn’t have much time to make a decision. After House Republicans voted swiftly Wednesday to oust Cheney, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced that a candidate forum for her replacement will take place Thursday evening and the election will be held Friday morning.

Plus, Stefanik is miles ahead with her whipping operation and her camp is feeling confident that they have all but locked down enough support to win the post. Even Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a prominent member of the Freedom Caucus, is backing Stefanik for the job.

To help ease some members’ concerns, Stefanik has been assuring members she would not buck leadership on big votes and doesn’t plan to stay in the role beyond 2022. The New Yorker told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that she has "great support" from across the conference, regardless of any other potential candidates for the post.

Still, should he throw his hat into the ring, Roy — a trouble-making and Constitution-obsessed former federal prosecutor — could prove to be an appealing alternative for angst-ridden conservatives who want to register their opposition to Stefanik.

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) admitted that Stefanik is likely to become the next Republican Conference chair, even if he isn’t thrilled about it.

“I think she’s liberal,” Buck told reporters. “I will not vote for Elise Stefanik.”

Olivia Beavers contributed to this report.

Seventeen congressional Republicans supported the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump. Unlike Liz Cheney, most of them want to move on.

Amid Cheney's ouster from House GOP leadership on Wednesday for continuing to rebut Trump’s election lies, other Republicans who deemed him guilty of inciting insurrection on Jan. 6 are taking an approach that largely spares them intra-party retribution. They stand by their anti-Trump votes and oppose Cheney’s demotion, but they're focused on strengthening their party’s message against Democratic control of Washington.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the only Senate Republican elected from a state that Trump lost in 2020, recently escaped censure by her state party for her vote to convict him and has dived into a bipartisan group negotiating on current issues. She said that President Joe Biden’s proposed expansions of government and the nation’s increasing debt “are the issues we should be talking about, rather than re-litigating the election.”

“I tend to focus on policy, not personalities. And I made my [impeachment] decision very clear by giving a long floor speech explaining it. And it’s time to move on to the challenges we’re facing,” Collins said. “Let’s move on.”

Getting past Trump and 2020 hasn’t come easily for Cheney. But as much as her fellow Republicans who crossed the former president would prefer to keep their focus on Biden, some recognize that their silence runs the risk of ceding Trump more power. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who voted to convict, said his House colleagues' Wednesday vote to evict Cheney is “going to be perceived as President Trump dictating what the House does.”

Cheney stands nearly alone in her willingness to sacrifice her leadership spot to call out Trump’s false claims that he won the election, demonstrating how strong his sway remains over the GOP. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, while initially critical of Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 riots, has since worked hard to get back in the former president’s good graces.

The party's top two Senate leaders, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.), have basically stopped talking about Trump after taking a more confrontational stance toward him in the wake of the insurrection. Asked about Trump on Tuesday, Thune said only that “I don’t think re-litigating the 2020 election is a winning strategy.”

Across the Capitol, however, Cheney hasn’t been afraid to speak her mind about Trump in interviews, op-eds and leadership press conferences — including at last month’s GOP policy retreat in Orlando. A gathering supposedly centered around party unity ended up kickstarting the campaign to push her out of power.

Her biggest ally among the other 16 Republicans is Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran who wears his impeachment vote like a badge of honor and constantly needles Trump and McCarthy on Twitter. Kinzinger launched an entire PAC dedicated to targeting the pro-Trump wing of his party and protecting fellow Republicans who voted to impeach. He even put together a “Rally for Liz” fundraiser ahead of Wednesday’s ouster vote.

The House’s pro-impeachment Republicans initially kept in constant contact, and nine of them banded together to criticize Speaker Nancy Pelosi as hypocritical for supporting a challenge to a contested Iowa House race. There was talk among them of teaming up on issues in the future if another opportunity presented itself.

That moment never came.

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) is back to keeping her usual low profile after nearly getting hauled before the Senate as an impeachment witness. Newly elected Republicans in swing seats, such as Rep. David Valadao of California and Peter Meijer of Michigan, are staying low-key after their impeachment votes.

Rep. John Katko told local reporters he will “absolutely support” fellow New York Rep. Elise Stefanik for GOP conference chair if Cheney is removed, though he considers the Wyoming Republican a “friend.” And Rep. Tom Rice, who represents a pro-Trump district in South Carolina, has privately vented about Cheney to his colleagues, according to GOP sources.

“I'm just going to go to the meeting with an open mind and listen to what happens," said pro-impeachment Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) when asked if he would support Cheney on Wednesday. She ultimately got ousted from the conference chairmanship in a quick voice vote.

Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) — who was recently censured by his state's GOP for his impeachment vote and is already facing a Trump-endorsed primary challenger — is another of the few party voices to come to Cheney’s defense in recent days.

But mostly, Kinzinger and Cheney are on a lonely island in the congressional GOP. The other Republicans who backed impeachment generally opt to keep their heads down, reluctant to make their votes against Trump part of their political brands — especially as they see calls for censure and pro-Trump primary challenges pile up in their districts.

The defense of Cheney is as porous in the Senate as in the House, though Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) likened silencing Cheney to “cancel culture" and she has a handful of defenders. McConnell, who supports Cheney’s re-election in Wyoming, has repeatedly dodged questions about her.

Collins called Cheney a "woman of strength and character and did what she thought was right" and said she hoped the GOP will accommodate "people with varying views on President Trump." Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who twice supported Trump’s impeachment, said he’s felt some compulsion to stick his neck out for her and worries about the message Wednesday's move will send.

“It’s important for us to stand up for people who are honorable, capable people,” Romney said in an interview. “If we want to attract more people to the party, that’s not going to work if we kick people out of leadership because we disagree with them.”

Some Republicans even argue that Cheney’s constant and high-profile rebukes of Trump are actually hurting the other members who voted to impeach, likening her behavior to picking at an old wound. Republicans have complained they’re being asked about Cheney by their constituents and donors back home.

“She seems not to be able to leave it,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a former House member. “People draw this conclusion that she’s being thrown out of the party. She’s not. But she’s asked for and received a position of leadership that, unfortunately, requires you to give up some of your autonomy to be the face of the caucus.”

And watching the consequences that Cheney suffered gives sympathetic Republicans little incentive to speak out. One House GOP lawmaker who voted to certify the election results, granted anonymity to candidly discuss the internal fire fight, said: "This whole discussion is certainly hurting the impeachment people, because they want to move forward and talk about their agenda for 2022.”

“This keeps putting them back in [trouble] with their base back home,” this Republican added. “And so if anything, Liz is hurting the impeachment folks the most.”

The situation is more dire for the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach the president than the seven GOP senators who voted for conviction. Though all those House members must face voters next year, just Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is up in 2022 among Senate Republicans who supported Trump’s conviction.

Murkowski will certainly face an unpleasant challenge from Trump strategists who have filled out the political team of challenger Kelly Tshibaka. But Alaska’s election laws have been changed to ranked-choice voting, easing her path to reelection.

Others will sleep even easier. Romney isn’t up for reelection until 2024 and Collins, Cassidy and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) won new six-year terms in November. Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) are retiring.

Burr shook his head when asked if he even thinks about Trump anymore, saying no one in North Carolina asks him about impeachment. The former Intelligence Committee chair added that it’s not even worth responding to Trump these days.

“It’s you guys that are starting the stories on Trump,” Burr told a reporter with a chuckle on Tuesday. “He got more press yesterday than the president.”

Olivia Beavers contributed to this report.

On the eve of being ousted as House GOP conference chair, a defiant Rep. Liz Cheney called Donald Trump a “threat we have never seen before” and said she refuses to peddle his lies that the election was stolen, nor should her GOP colleagues.

In what will likely be her final public stand as the No. 3 in GOP leadership, the Wyoming Republican — wearing a pin that is a replica of George Washington’s battle flag — continued to blame Trump for inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riots, raised concerns about the path her party is heading, and warned that democracy and freedom are at stake. All are comments that have contributed to her imminent loss of power.

"Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar,” Cheney said in a floor speech Tuesday evening. “I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy."

"We must speak the truth," she added. "Our election was not stolen, and America has not failed."

Cheney also admonished Trump for provoking “a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election” and warned that “he risks inciting further violence” by continuing to push his baseless claims about voter fraud, which many of her Republican colleagues have echoed.

“Our freedom only survives if we protect it,” she said.

Cheney’s short but pointed floor speech came hours before members of the House GOP conference are expected to flock to a Wednesday meeting. At that point, her fellow Republicans will decide her fate in leadership, which many members say is all but a foregone conclusion: Cheney, the highest ranking woman in the House, will be ejected from leadership Wednesday morning, and Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York will be named her successor in the days ahead.

Cheney seems ready to accept the outcome; she has not sought to whip members to vote to protect her position. And rather than going quietly, Cheney has continued to sing her message publicly, often putting her in direct opposition with statements that GOP leader Kevin McCarthy has made.

The final straw came when Cheney split with McCarthy and other Republicans during the annual GOP policy conference late last month, which sparked the realization among members of the conference that the situation was untenable.

The talk of her ouster began to snowball over the course of a week. This time, her list of critics grew from members across the party’s spectrum, with moderates, GOP leaders, and longtime Cheney allies joining longtime Cheney critics in agreeing that it is time to remove her as conference chair.

They argue that it is not about her impeachment vote, but because her role is to message on behalf of the conference — particularly as they look to win back control of the House in 2022 — and her individual views are distracting their message of hitting the Biden administration and Democrats’ “radical socialist agenda.” Democrats, meanwhile, have latched onto the message that the party is seeking to silence Cheney because she is anti-Trump, optics of which have reverberated beyond the Capitol.

Cheney survived an attempted ouster in February after ultra-conservative members sought to remove her over her vote to impeach Trump on Jan. 6, prevailing in a 145-61 secret ballot vote. That is not expected to be the case Wednesday, though it is not clear if the vote will be by voice vote or a recorded secret ballot.

During her floor speech Tuesday evening, Cheney issued the warning that the rest of the world is watching.

“Attacks against our democratic process and the rule of law empower our adversaries and feed Communist propaganda that American democracy is a failure,” Cheney said.

In a brief moment of levity, Cheney noted that preceding GOP speakers had, ironically, just been giving speeches complaining about cancel culture.

“I have some thoughts about that,” Cheney said. “But tonight I rise to discuss freedom and our constitutional duty to protect it.”

Elise Stefanik on Tuesday faced her first formal pushback from a conservative colleague on her apparent glide path to the House GOP's No. 3 leadership spot after Liz Cheney's expected ouster from the role.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, sent a memo to every Republican office in the chamber arguing that Stefanik should not be serving in leadership. But Roy hardly embraced Cheney's continued presence atop the conference, also asserting that the Wyoming Republican no longer deserves to be conference chair.

Despite multiple Freedom Caucus members privately expressing reluctance — if not outright opposition — to Stefanik over concerns about the New Yorker's past moderate record, Roy is one of only a few House conservatives to take his criticism public. He focused his case against Stefanik on past votes that he contended should disqualify her from leading the conference on messaging.

"We must avoid putting in charge Republicans who campaign as Republicans but then vote for and advance the Democrats’ agenda once sworn in -- that is, that we do not make the same mistakes that we did in 2017,” Roy wrote in his memo, which was first obtained by POLITICO.

Roy also warned about the speedy effort by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other GOP leaders to whip rank-and-file members for Stefanik even before Cheney is voted out of the No. 3 role.

"Therefore, with all due respect to my friend, Elise Stefanik, let us contemplate the message Republican leadership is about to send by rushing to coronate a spokesperson whose voting record embodies much of what led to the 2018 ass-kicking we received by Democrats," Roy wrote.

Stefanik has sought to reassure her skeptical conservative colleagues. She's pledged to only serve the rest of the current Congress as conference chair and that she would resign before taking a vote that differs from the majority of House Republicans. If Roy’s memo is any guide, though, those promises have yet to fully win over the right flank of the conference.

Asked to address the burgeoning conservative criticism of her bid, Stefanik told reporters Tuesday that “we have a great deal of support from the Freedom Caucus and others."

Roy was one of the few Freedom Caucus members who voted against challenges to President Joe Biden’s win in January. He also defended Cheney at the time, saying that her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump over the Capitol riot was a vote of conscience.

But Roy later soured on Cheney. After Cheney publicly split from McCarthy about whether Trump should speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference — while the two House GOP leaders were sharing a stage — Roy said publicly that she had “forfeited the right to be chair of the Republican conference.”

“Most Americans do not know who the Republican Conference Chairwoman is or what she does. All they care about is whether we are fighting for them and fighting to stop the radical Democrat agenda that has us driving at full speed ahead toward that iceberg,” Roy wrote.

He added: "This is actually why Liz Cheney will lose her job as Chair this week: she forfeited her ability to be our spokesperson by pulling us into distraction.”

The vote to remove Cheney is set for Wednesday and Roy says he plans to vote to recall her, despite “considering her a friend and trying to give her a chance to succeed.”

The Texan called for his fellow GOP colleagues to either find a No. 3 leader who "reflects our conservative values," or leave the position vacant altogether to focus on a "strong agenda" rather than a leadership role that voters don't care about.

Stefanik has won endorsements from some powerful conservatives, including Freedom Caucus co-founder turned McCarthy ally Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Trump himself. The former president has favored Stefanik since she assumed a visible role defending him during his first impeachment trial, and her conversion from a moderate to a Trump defender is enough to convince some Republicans of her leadership bona fides.

Cheney survived a February effort by conservatives to oust her, winning 145-61 in a secret-ballot vote. But this time, Cheney is not whipping votes to try to protect her role in leadership ahead of the high-profile eviction, and her ouster is expected.

In addition, this spring GOP leaders are spearheading the move to boot Cheney while some of her former allies, including moderates, have broken with her over repeated Trump criticism that they say distracts from their efforts to win back the House in 2022.