House Republicans voted to make Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) their latest nominee for speaker after an insurmountable wave of detractors forced Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) to withdraw his bid for the post on Thursday.
In a private secret ballot held on Friday, Jordan edged out surprise challenger Rep. Austin Scott, a Georgia Republican who announced Friday morning that he would enter the race as an alternative to the archconservative Ohio Republican.
The final tally was 124 votes for Jordan and 81 for Scott, according to Punchbowl News. It was a disappointing show for Jordan, who had worked for days to rally support, in contrast with Scott who entered the race seemingly on a whim just hours before the vote began.
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Jordan—who initially narrowly lost the first private speaker vote to Scalise on Wednesday—may be the party's official speaker designee, but it's clear that title means very little in this hopelessly fractured House GOP.
As Jordan moves toward a speaker vote in the full House of Representatives, he faces the same fundamental problem that ended Scalise's bid: he doesn't have the votes to win.
Scores of holdouts again rebuked Jordan in a follow-up vote that asked lawmakers if they would support their new nominee on the floor, leaving Jordan with the nearly impossible task of bringing virtually all of them to his side in order to keep his bid viable.
Republicans broke for the weekend without bringing a floor vote on Jordan, extending the unprecedented interregnum between speakers and capping a remarkable week of chaos and infighting among the GOP.
Jordan appeared to lose some backing even after becoming the nominee; Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) said she voted for him but was prompted to reassess her support after witnessing “behind-the-scenes politics” and “backstabbing” on Friday.
“He is a great American with strong conservative values, but I am not sure if he truly is the independent thinker and visionary leader we need to deliver for the American people,” Spartz said in a press release. “I will have to assess on Monday if Jim is the right person who will be held accountable to the same standard as Kevin was, or just another puppet for the swamp with a better bio.”
At least three GOP lawmakers have publicly put themselves in the never-Jordan camp thus far. It's fewer than the two dozen detractors who doomed Scalise’s run, but with 217 votes needed to take the speakership, Jordan can only afford to lose support from four Republicans.
It's also a near-certainty that more lawmakers will voice their opposition to voting for Jordan on the floor—particularly allies of Scalise, who remain furious over how the Ohio Republican maneuvered around him.
Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) told CNN that Jordan is a “non-starter,” and Reps. Mike Rogers (R-AL) and John Rutherford (R-FL) told POLITICO they’re also firmly in the no camp.
Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (R-FL) made it clear that he still wants McCarthy reinstated, writing on X that “he should have never been removed to begin with.
Scott, who ran as a protest candidate to Jordan more than anything else, told reporters earlier in the day that “actually, I don't necessarily want to be Speaker of the House. I want a House that functions correctly.”
“We need to be a House that functions correctly, that means you have to do the right things the right way, what happened with the removal of Kevin McCarthy was the wrong thing the wrong way, not allowing Scalise to move forward was the wrong thing the wrong way,” Scott said.
Scott endorsed Jordan after being bested for the nomination, writing on X that “our conference has spoken, and now we must unite behind Jordan so we can get Congress back to work.”
