In the first round of voting Tuesday, US lawmakers rejected hard-line conservative Jim Jordan’s bid for Speaker of the House, cementing a stalemate that has paralyzed Washington for two weeks.
The lower house of Congress has been paralyzed since Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy was expelled by his own party on October 3 — unable to face a potential government shutdown or a Middle East war.
Jordan, who is supported by scandal-plagued former President Donald Trump, was defeated by 20 Republicans who voted along with every Democrat to deny him the presidency.
The powerful Judiciary Committee chairman had expressed confidence that he would be able to achieve a majority, and following his failure indicated that he wanted to return to the floor for a second attempt, but no timeline was given.
Jordan received 200 votes, three fewer than McCarthy received on his first of 15 attempts to become speaker in January, and ten fewer than the vote that deposed him.
Scott Perry, chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, which Jordan helped form, said he was “pretty confident” Jordan will win the presidency.
“I feel like Jim Jordan is an NCAA champion wrestler who’s wrestled a lot of rounds,” Perry told reporters, in a nod to Jordan’s college sporting achievements.
“I think he can go the distance.”
House Republicans have a razor-thin majority, which means Jordan will likely be able to lose no more than four colleagues in each round of voting, with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries expected to earn the complete Democratic vote every time.
Some Republicans are cautious of Jordan’s scorched-earth approach to politics, while others are outraged by his supporters’ aggressive pressure methods.
‘Bad feelings’
Whoever is appointed will face immediate pressure to lead US support for Israel in its war with Hamas, renew US funding for Ukraine’s struggle against Russian invasion, and extend the US budget, or face a costly government shutdown next month.
The House has remained frozen since McCarthy’s resignation earlier this month, in part due to his decision to negotiate an early government funding deadline with Democrats.
Jordan, who has been a vocal critic of House leadership for much of his career and has never written a measure that has been passed into law, is recognized for his political cynicism rather than his legislative record.
The former wrestling champion and Ohio State University coach has been haunted by allegations that he ignored sexual assault of teenage wrestlers by a team doctor, which he denies.
With Republicans gaining a narrow House majority in 2022, he seized the powerful position of judiciary chairman and is leading an aggressive impeachment investigation against President Joe Biden.
“I think Jim Jordan will be a great speaker,” Trump said outside a courthouse in New York as he attended his civil trial for fraud.
“I think he’s going to have the votes soon, if not today over the next day or two.”
New York congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis said the 20 dissenters who refused to back Jordan were “just as complicit” for the chaos as the eight who agitated McCarthy’s dismissal.
“The question is now how do we unite around one candidate,” she told reporters.
“Because obviously it has created a lot of rifts in the conference, a lot of bad feelings and we do need to repair those things.”