Names like Brian Fitzpatrick, Don Bacon, Young Kim, Gus Bilirakis, Andrew Barbarino, Chris Smith, David Joyce, Mark Amodei, Maria Salazar, or John Curtis probably don’t jump off the page at you. And you likely couldn’t identify them in a lineup, much less know what state they’re from. Yet one of these ten should be the next House Speaker.

One of them should be chosen not because they’re household names, but because they’re better qualified for the job than a lot of names who have been bandied around by the Republican Party. And one of these would do a better job of keeping the House of Representatives in GOP hands than a lot of better known, but problematic candidates. This column will explain why.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in Georgia. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu. His Twitter account is @JohnTures2.