Jim Jordan makes second bid for speaker
Updated October 13, 2023 at 1:18 PM ET
House Republicans will try again this afternoon to nominate and unify around a candidate for speaker, after their initial nominee Majority Leader Steve Scalise failed to consolidate party support.
Scalise's chief rival, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, is running again and enters as the frontrunner. Jordan lost to Scalise in a 113-99 secret ballot vote. "I think I can unite the Conference and I think I can go tell the country what we're doing and why it matters," Jordan told reporters.
At least one Republican, Georgia Rep. Austin Scott, has stepped up to challenge Jordan in a surprise bid. "We are in Washington to legislate, and I want to lead a House that functions in the best interest of the American people," he announced on social media.
Jordan moves to win votes beyond the far-right
Jordan, 59, has served in Congress since 2007 and has evolved from hyper-partisan outsider who helped start the House Freedom Caucus to hyper-partisan insider, with a seat at the leadership, a committee gavel, a close relationship with former President Trump and a leading role in the ongoing impeachment inquiry of President Biden.
It is unclear if Jordan will fall to the same fate as Scalise, as winning the nomination is far different than winning on the House floor. If all sitting members are present, the nominee will need 217 Republican votes. There are currently 221 Republicans.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a Jordan ally, was confident that Jordan could win the gavel on the floor, but conceded it could take several rounds of voting. "It's not popular to vote against Jim Jordan on the floor. He has the people's support. So even if he didn't get to 217 on the first round, I think his numbers grow under subsequent rounds."
Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., is also backing Jordan, but said he would see who else runs and that the "candidate forum matters. The debate actually matters. The policies matter."
A full House vote was not expected Friday, but Garcia said if the nominee was within 20 votes, it could move to the floor quickly to pressure holdouts. "In the end, I think the great equalizer is the floor, and the great clarifier is the floor, the lights, the pressure and the public opinion."
Garcia acknowledged Jordan's pugnacious style and hard right conservative politics might make him less palatable to moderates and members in swing districts. His district voted for Biden in 2020.
"I can tell you [my constituents'] priority is that we have a functioning government," Garcia said. "And if that means that I support someone that may be more conservative than me and may be a political lightning rod, but I'm willing to do that, especially if he's the only candidate."
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla. said he was not planning to vote for Jordan. In his view, Jordan undermined Scalise's nomination and didn't work hard enough to consolidate support for Scalise.
"He could have been much more passionate about his endorsement," he said, adding he did not believe Jordan could secure the votes on the House floor. "I don't think he'll get probably close to 217."
Bitter divisions remain
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said he was concerned that Jordan's supporters refused to back Scalise on Thursday and told reporters, "when you reward bad behavior you get more of it." Other supporters of Scalise expressed similar concerns, and the mood among House GOP lawmakers was tense as members filed out of the meeting with many saying they had no idea when their party could coalesce around a speaker and get back to work.
Bacon is among a small group of Republicans who has floated the idea of seeking a consensus candidate that would require some level of Democratic support. "At some point when we've gone to the end of the well and we're still at this spot we're going to have to come up with a bipartisan solution," Bacon said. He said "a lot of our folks are in denial so you've never going to get 8-10 folks on board."
Democrats push for a bipartisan solution
For their part, top Democrats have used the opportunity to press Republicans to discuss a consensus government. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has publicly offered to help Republicans elect a speaker, which he reiterated Thursday in a PBS interview.
"We are ready, willing and able to do so," Jeffries said. "I know there are traditional Republicans who are good women and men who want to see government function, but they are unable to do it within the ranks of their own conference, which is dominated by the extremist wing. And that's why we continue to extend the hand of bipartisanship to them."
Jeffries said Democrats could provide votes to elect a speaker and change the rules to make it harder to remove a sitting speaker from power, if that speaker promised more Democratic seats on key committees and a pledge to bring legislation with bipartisan support to the floor, including aid to Ukraine, Israel, and the 12 annual spending bills to avoid a shutdown.
Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters on Friday that there are generally 300 lawmakers willing to work together on big issues. "What I'm saying is, we are agonizing about a small, willful, extremist group that has been holding the Congress of the United States hostage. They ought to get off that and walk across the aisle and say, 'What can we do?'"
Top Republicans continue to express no interest in seeking help from Democrats to resolve their internal party problems.
This is a developing story. [Copyright 2023 NPR]
