The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 234-199 against Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) for Speaker of the House.
It was the second round of voting in as many days. Jordan received one fewer vote than he had on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, 22 Republicans voted for other GOP Reps.—Kevin McCarthy of California, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Byron Donalds of New York, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Mike Garcia of California, Kay Granger or Texas, Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, Candace Miller of Michigan, former Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York and former Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) nominated Jordan on Wednesday, saying, “We have a chance today to end that chaos and to end that uncertainty” that the House was thrown into with the unprecedented ousting of McCarthy from the Speakership more than two weeks ago.
Cole called Jordan “an honorable man” and a “pretty direct man…he doesn’t deceive, he doesn’t dissemble.”
There were 433 members of the House present for the vote, meaning Jordan could afford to lose no more than four votes on the Republican side of the chamber.
All 212 Democrats voted en mass for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), as they did on Tuesday when the House of Representatives voted 232-200 against Jordan for Speaker, including 20 Republicans who cast their ballots for other lawmakers.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) nominated Jeffries on Wednesday, as he had on Tuesday, saying, “The people’s House has spoken, and leader Jeffries has the support to be the Speaker this country needs,” noting that Jeffries received 212 votes on Tuesday while Jordan only received 200.
Former President Trump has endorsed Jordan, who was deeply involved in the attempt to overturn President Biden’s 2020 election victory, according to the House Select Committee that investigated the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. To this day, Jordan refuses to admit that Biden won the 2020 election.
Further, Jordan has a reputation for being a partisan firebrand who currently chairs not just the House Judiciary Committee but also the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which he helped create to investigate what he’s called “this weaponization of the DOJ against the American people.”
House Republicans have been under pressure to move quickly to choose a new leader from members of their own party in the Senate amid a looming deadline to pass a federal budget for fiscal year 2024 and avoid a government shutdown in mid-November, as well as calls to approve appropriations for additional military aid to Israel and Ukraine.
Jordan told reporters before the vote on Wednesday that he planned to stay in the race regardless of the outcome, but House GOP members were reportedly floating several new names for the Speakership, should Jordan withdraw his nomination, while others were more seriously considering propping up Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) for a limited time in order to get crucial business done.
On Tuesday, Minority Leader Jeffries said, “I have respect for Patrick McHenry….There are a whole host of other Republicans who are respected on our side of the aisle. Jim Jordan is not one of them.”
