Mod: Jordan's inability to become House Speaker is kind of a Waterloo for MAGAs. After this? Nothing.
Jordan fails on second speaker vote as Republican division grows (The Washington Post link): Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) failed again Wednesday to win enough Republican support to become the next speaker of the House — prompting increasing calls from both parties to expand the powers of the interim speaker to overcome the GOP’s intraparty morass and move on with legislative matters.
Jordan, who received 200 votes in the first ballot Tuesday, had said he would continue trying to win over the 20 colleagues who had opposed him. In the only round of balloting on Wednesday, however, he lost support overall, ending up with 199 votes. He flipped only two
Republican votes and lost four of his colleagues, most of whom are pragmatic lawmakers focused on governing and allies of
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who initially defeated
Jordan for the party’s nomination last week.
Afterward, a spokesman for Jordan vowed the Ohio Republican would “keep going,” even as it was unclear what his path to the necessary votes would be. Later, Jordan said lawmakers would reconvene Thursday instead of continuing to vote Wednesday night.
The unprecedented impasse has now left the
House without a speaker for more than two weeks, since
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted Oct. 3 in a rebellion by the
GOP’s hard-right lawmakers. Those same lawmakers had touted
Jordan and his ultraconservative credentials as a plus:
Jordan was a founding member of the
House Freedom Caucus and has been a staunch ally of
Donald Trump, supporting him in his effort to overturn the 2020 election.
But
Jordan has so far been unable to overcome the
House Republican Conference’s deep divisions, which have been laid bare in several high-profile fights this year over the nation’s debt limit and the appropriations process.
Republicans have privately admitted they will start to flip their support if
Jordan can’t clinch the speakership, and more
GOP lawmakers are expected to oppose
Jordan on Thursday. Some
Republicans have worked among themselves to ensure that the number of votes against
Jordan grows in each round of voting, according to two lawmakers familiar with the effort who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations, recognizing that
Jordan will not back down until it is clear a majority of
Republicans do not want him to lead their conference.
Mod: More at the link.
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