House Republicans voted to drop Jim Jordan as their speaker nominee in a secret-ballot vote on Friday afternoon, shortly after the House Judiciary chairman failed to secure the gavel in a floor vote for the third time this week.
Twenty-five House Republicans joined a united Democratic caucus in opposing Jordan’s third speaker bid on Friday, setting up the closed-door vote to strip him of the nomination. The GOP opposition to Jordan’s bid had steadily grown with each successive ballot: 2o members of the caucus voted against him on the first ballot and 22 voted against him the second time around.
Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry told reporters the caucus would hold a candidate forum Monday night in hopes of bringing a nominee to the floor for a vote on Tuesday.
Several candidates quickly entered the race for the speakership after Jordan’s ouster: Representatives Byron Donalds of Florida, Jack Bergman of Michigan, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, and Austin Scott of Georgia. Others began making calls about their plans to enter the race or openly mulling bids, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, and House GOP Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson.
“We’ve got to make a lot of phone calls this weekend and see what see what the issues are,” Hern told National Review moments after the vote to remove Jordan from consideration.
“People know me. I’m never gonna lie to you. I’m never gonna lie for you. I think simpler is better,” Scott, who launched a failed bid against Jordan last week, told National Review of his newly announced bid. “We just got to keep pushing forward until we get through the next election.”
Former speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters the conference would “have to go back to the drawing board” over the weekend to determine a path forward. He also slammed Representative Matt Gaetz and the seven other House Republican rebels who ousted him from his position.
“What history will look at — the crazy eights led by Gaetz — the amount of damage they’ve done to this party and to this country is insurmountable,” McCarthy said.
“We’re in a very bad position as a party, one that has won the majority, one that America has entrusted us with. A simple eight people put us in this place,” he added.
Jordan’s supporters had put immense pressure on the holdouts this week to get in line and relieve the legislative paralysis that’s gripped the chamber since McCarthy was ousted from his post more than two weeks ago.
“We’ll just talk to the conference some more, listen some more, figure out how we can get a speaker,” Jordan told reporters after the third failed vote. “All I know is we need to get a speaker of the House and the fastest way to do that is a guy who has between 195 and 200 votes.”
But those who opposed him dug in their heels, even as Jordan and his surrogates continued to plead with them behind closed doors to get in line. Many detractors released statements earlier this week saying the grassroots pressure campaign to support Jordan has resulted in death threats against members and their families. Others said there were no concessions Jordan could make to change their minds.
“We have a principled stance,” Representative Carlos Giménez told National Review on Friday after casting his third floor vote in opposition to Jordan to date. “There’s nothing we want. So there’s nothing he can offer us.”
The eight House Republicans who voted with Democrats on October 3 to oust McCarthy released a letter Friday saying they were “prepared to accept censure, suspension or removal” to accomplish the objective of electing Jordan as speaker.
This is a developing story