Jim Jordan fails again in second House vote as calls grow for interim fix
House Republicans failed Wednesday to elect Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) speaker on a second ballot, as calls grew louder to empower speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) until the deadlock is broken.
Just 199 GOP lawmakers backed Jordan in the second vote — one fewer than he received a day earlier — while 22 others broke ranks to support former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), and a handful of current and former lawmakers.
The throwaway votes trickled in for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) and Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.).
Michigan Rep. John James backed the former congresswoman from his district, Candice Miller, while Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) shouted out the name of former House speaker John Boehner, prompting applause from Democrats.
The failure of Tuesday’s first vote and the unlikelihood of Jordan winning the gavel Wednesday moved Kelly and others to begin preparations to enhance the power of the acting speaker, sources told The Post.
One House staff member said members were apparently ready to put a privileged motion on McHenry’s speakership to a floor vote on Wednesday, but no such effort was made before the North Carolinian recessed the chamber following the speaker vote.
Another GOP aide suggested the motion would grant McHenry the authority to pass bills providing aid to Israel and other measures until Nov. 17, when government funding runs out.
“Of course, Democrats will need to help us out since most of the ‘Taliban caucus’ will oppose any effort like this,” the aide snarked, referring to the eight GOP lawmakers who helped oust McCarthy Oct. 3.
Emmer told CNN ahead of the vote that the McHenry resolution was a “non-starter,” leaving the Republican conference in a stalemate of its own making.
As on Tuesday, all 212 Democrats present voted for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), jeering Jordan’s record as a legislator and his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
The Brooklyn Democrat won most of the votes over the past two days but failed to clear the 217-vote threshold necessary to become House speaker, with 432 members present for the floor vote on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The third ballot of the speaker vote, if there is one, will not be held before noon Thursday.
“We’ve picked up three votes today, but then lost a couple of those people [who] like I said have voted for us before,” Jordan told The Post after the vote, referencing support from Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) and others who came to his side on Wednesday.
“I think they’ll come back again, so we’ll keep talking to members” he added.
“We have the Main Street group who are for us, conservative members who are for us — we’ve had [conservatives Matt] Rosendale and [Chip] Roy all the way to [moderate Brian] Fitzpatrick and so we have a complete section of the conference.”
But 13 Republican holdouts who voted again for McCarthy and Scalise appeared unpersuaded, escalating tensions with hardliners like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) who ousted the former speaker earlier this month for passing a bipartisan government funding bill.
Three members of New York’s delegation also held up Jordan’s speakership bid with votes for former Long Island congressman and Empire State gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin.
“While I continue to meet with Mr. Jordan on this and issues important to my district, I cannot support any Speaker candidate without clarity on these important issues,” Suffolk County Rep. Nick LaLota posted on X before his vote, outlining his concern about the Ohioan’s ability to “keep our government open and pay our troops while making progress on our budget and border.”
Others, like upstate Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), disagreed and said Jordan had kept his promises.
“Congressman Jim Jordan has proven that he is committed to restoring transparency to Congress, reining in runaway spending, holding our adversaries accountable, and strengthening oversight of federal bureaucrats,” Tenney told The Post in a statement, urging others to support Jordan for a third round.
However, ardent McCarthy supporters such as Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) said that an apparently ongoing and well-funded pressure campaign by Jordan allies would not sway their vote.
“Somebody is funding this,” Gimenez told The Post, mentioning a large volume of phone calls his office and some of his constituents had received in the past 24 hours.
“I don’t really take well to threats,” the Cuban-born representative added.
The wife of Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who also voted twice for McCarthy, has gotten threatening texts from anonymous correspondents since her husband first opposed Jordan.
The frustration ramped up hours after the vote as several House Republicans made renewed calls for McHenry to gain power.
“I think we’re going to empower the speaker pro tem to act as Speaker for a period of time, possibly through the end of the year,” Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) told reporters.
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who voted for Scalise, raised the stakes by calling for all House members to return that evening for a floor vote on McHenry.
But Garcia threw cold water on the effort when speaking with reporters.
“If it’s temporary or empowerment of McHenry for a couple of weeks, that’s interesting, but that’s a short term solution,” he said.
Garcia also suggested that members “sequester” themselves at some place like “Manassas” in Virginia or “Gettysburg” in Pennsylvania.
“We need to sequester ourselves somewhere else outside the Beltway — away from the drama, away from the lobbyists, away from all the grease here — and remind ourselves what it means to be a patriot,” he said.
“Let’s dispense with the rules of, dispense with all the protocols and all the BS that’s gotten us to this point, have big adult conversations in one room and figure out how we’re going to navigate this.”
