The scene of House conservatives fumbling as they try to translate their ideological fervor into leadership power is a familiar one. A year ago, McCarthy easily succeeded then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor after Cantor was defeated in a primary and coup attempts targeting Boehner ahead of the past two speaker elections were poorly executed.

Still, there is an ongoing push to draft another candidate for speaker , stoked by headstrong voices on talk radio and on conservative Web sites. In interviews Monday, several heads of conservative organizations said they are hopeful they can find a consensus pick.

“Someone’s got to step up,” said Adam Brandon, chief executive of the activist group FreedomWorks. “Someone’s got to volunteer to get in there, and it’s not just the speaker’s race, because if Kevin McCarthy is going to be speaker, you’ve got to be damned sure that I am expecting that we have one of our true-blue guys as majority leader.”

Price, who led an ill-fated effort to hew to strict spending caps during GOP budget discussions this year, is well regarded among House conservatives, but he is not a member of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus and does not have the demeanor of a firebrand.