Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has told colleagues not to re-nominate him for the position after several of his allies indicated dozens of Republicans would back him over either Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) or Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), The Post has learned.

McCarthy, who last week became the first House speaker in US history to be ousted by a floor vote, gave the instruction during a closed-door meeting with GOP members on Tuesday, Punchbowl News first reported.

The exhortation came one day after McCarthy allies including Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), John Rutherford (R-Fla.) and John Duarte (R-Calif.) told House Republicans in a separate meeting that they intended to try to reinstall McCarthy as speaker, according to Politico.

House GOP aides told The Post that the former speaker’s allies were expected to move forward with their efforts anyway, though many expressed doubt that McCarthy could clear the 217-vote threshold to win back the gavel.

“I doubt he gets 60 to 80 votes,” one aide said, referring to Politico’s estimate of McCarthy’s support.

“A lot of the hard McCarthy people already committed to Jordan,” added another source.

Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), a onetime McCarthy ally, posted on X, formerly Twitter, in response to the reports: “I’m not involved in any effort to include Rep. McCarthy on the ballot.”

Jordan currently has 47 House Republican publicly supporting his bid for the speakership, according to the Washington Examiner’s endorsement tracker.

Just 31 GOP lawmakers back Scalise, the tracker shows, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.).

Another GOP aide said the eight members who voted McCarthy out are now “mainly behind Jordan,” implying Scalise would face more difficulty shoring up votes from hard-right members.

Both Scalise and Jordan appeared Tuesday evening at a candidates’ forum aimed at determining the direction of their caucus for the rest of the congressional term.

Moderate Republicans and key committee leaders have kept their cards close to their chests on any eventual speakership votes, but some have conditioned their support on penalties for members who removed McCarthy.

“When you can’t say unequivocally that there should be accountability for eight that did this, I’m not interested in supporting you as a candidate,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) told the Wall Street Journal.

The New York Republican has previously expressed interest in expelling Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) from the conference for leading the motion to vacate against McCarthy — and stripping the other seven GOP lawmakers who backed Gaetz of their committee assignments.

As he exited Tuesday’s forum, Scalise told reporters that it went “great” and that lawmakers were receptive to his speakership pitch.

“We’ve been building a great coalition amongst my colleagues from every slot at the conference,” Scalise said. “But obviously we just had a great forum in the full conference. But what people have really liked about my approach is that I’ve been a unifier. I’ve been somebody who’s built coalitions throughout my entire career, and we’ve delivered big wins and people want to see us get back on track.”

“We need a Congress that’s working tomorrow. We need to get Congress back to work,” he added, vowing to pass a resolution to “express our strong support for Israel” on day one of his speakership.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), one of the infamous GOP eight, wore a white T-shirt emblazoned with a red “A” as she entered the forum Tuesday night, a reference to “The Scarlet Letter.”

“I am wearing the scarlet letter after the week that I just had last week, being a woman up here and being demonized for my vote and for my voice,” Mace explained.

The South Carolina Republican added that she will back Jordan for the speakership. 

“He answered every question honestly, and with energy, and that is the bare minimum that the American people want,” Mace said. “It’s what the American people need, and it’s what the American people deserve. I’m very excited about this vote tomorrow. And I hope that we’ll come together for the next speaker very, very quickly.”

When asked if she thought the GOP conference was united behind Jordan, Mace responded, “We’ll find out tomorrow.” 

“We’ll have a conference vote tomorrow, and I hope that win, lose or draw that we all get behind one person so we can go to the floor in the afternoon and have that vote,” she added. 

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said the forum has been calm, despite intraparty tensions.  

“It’s a very, you know, low key format and there are not a lot of, not a lot of emotions,” Crenshaw told reporters. 

The Texas Republican added that he’s still not sure whether he will back Jordan or Scalise for the speakership.

“I’m honestly torn still (on which candidate to support.) I don’t want to swing the vote for one or the other,” Crenshaw said. 

“It was helpful to hear some specific answers to specific questions,” he added, declining to say what was asked.

Similarly, Gaetz told reporters as the forum was wrapping up that he’s undecided on who to pick.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)  revealed that both candidates said they’d support continuing the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, but noted that she wanted to hear “stronger language” from the contenders.

Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) said Scalise and Jordan both gave “a couple of opening statements, (and took) probably 30 to 40 questions” during the forum. 

“My question to both of them was how do you resonate with the middle third of America? I think the middle third is where the battlefront is right now. We do a good job of talking to our base and throwing the red meat out there, but how do we attract more people in the middle third, and it’s not necessarily Republican or Democrat,” Garcia said. 

“I think they’re both going back to their happy places, which is a ‘Rah rah Republican Party’ kind of mindset,” he added. “You know, I don’t, I don’t think that that’s the right solution right now (to maintain the majority.)”

McCarthy had previously expressed he was open to taking back the speakership if the conference was unified in its support.

Speaking to reporters in a Monday press conference, he made a forceful appeal that the lack of House Republican leadership was compromising conservative priorities such as border security and reducing federal spending — one of the reasons cited by hardliners for ousting McCarthy.

The next House speaker would also face the looming threat of another motion to vacate by disgruntled members, as Republicans hold just a four-seat majority.

“Is our conference just going to select somebody to try to throw them out in another 35 days if eight people don’t get 100% of what they want?” McCarthy told reporters.

“[If] you allow eight people to continue to do that with no consequences — no one’s going to be successful.”