GOP starts anew after Jordan bid for speaker fails

House Republicans say they will start over Monday with new candidate forum

Jim Jordan announces his withdrawal from the race for speaker. Picture: AFP

Rep. Jim Jordan withdrew his bid to become House speaker after the fiery conservative lost both a public and private vote Friday, sending divided House Republicans back to the starting line in their weekslong quest to elect a leader and pass urgent legislation.

Jordan’s defeat marked the latest fallout from the ouster earlier this month of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R., La.) and now Jordan winning the party’s nod only to fall short of the gavel because of internal GOP opposition. The impasse has left the House frozen and unable to consider legislative initiatives, including the expiration of the government’s current funding next month and assistance for Israel or Ukraine.

Republicans “need to come together and figure out who our speaker is going to be,” Jordan said after he ended his bid. “Let’s figure out who that individual is, get behind them and get to work for the American people.”

The day started with the Ohio Republican imploring colleagues to unite behind him, only to see further defections in a third straight loss for him on the House floor. In all, 25 Republicans joined with all Democrats to oppose him — up from 22 on Wednesday and 20 on Tuesday. Hours later, in a closed-door GOP conference meeting, frustrated colleagues threw in the towel on his candidacy, with more than 100 rejecting him in a secret ballot.

Republicans will now restart their search for a speaker with a candidate forum set for Monday evening and an internal vote Tuesday morning.

“The space and time for a reset is an important thing for House Republicans,” Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R., N.C.) said Friday. McHenry spoke after House Republicans privately voted 112-86 to no longer support Jordan as their candidate.

Jordan’s departure from the race has swung the door open for broader competition. Already Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern (R., Okla.) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R., Texas) had announced interest in the job, while House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R., Minn.) was quickly endorsed by McCarthy. A handful of others also were considering bids.

GOP lawmakers said they hoped to finally move beyond the tensions that had built up for months over the role of the GOP hardliners who had complicated McCarthy’s path to power, blocked legislation and ultimately engineered his ouster. They later helped defeat Scalise’s bid to succeed him. The bad feelings then served to sink Jordan, with many lawmakers loath to promote him, which they worried would reward the behaviour of the hard right wing.

Kevin Hern has declared his interst in the speakership. Picture: AFP

Lawmakers said the internal vote Friday helped underscore that there was no path forward or internal GOP support for Jordan to continue to hold votes on the House floor. With a slim 221-212 majority, Republicans can’t afford to lose more than a few GOP votes for their nominee if all Democrats continue to back their pick, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.).

The end of Jordan’s speaker bid marked a rare assertion of power by the House GOP’s more centrist lawmakers and those who want to see the chamber operate, following nine months of intraparty fighting in which small groups of lawmakers often drove the party’s agenda.

Jordan is a close ally of former President Donald Trump, and conservative activists strongly backed his candidacy. The head of the House Judiciary Committee and co-founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus was in close contact with Trump during the former president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. In past years, he was a regular thorn in the side of party leaders, leaving some pro-governance Republicans wary of his ability to lead the chamber.

On Friday, he again declined to say whether he thought Trump lost the election, a position that has fuelled Democratic charges that he is a far-right election denier while also angering some Republicans, including Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, who had voted to oust McCarthy but declined to back Jordan.

Jordan had faced opposition from GOP colleagues worried about how he would manage spending talks and avoid a government shutdown; allies of other party leaders who were pushed aside in favour of Jordan; and moderates from Democratic-leaning regions who see him as too stridently conservative. His opponents had also been angered by the pressure levied by activists and conservative media, which lawmakers said had been trying to coerce them into supporting Jordan by threatening to damage their political careers.

“We had to stand on principle here,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.), who had opposed Jordan. Bacon said he wanted Republicans to return to an era where they coalesced behind the candidate selected by the majority of the party, rather than let a tiny faction overturn that choice. “There’s got to be a set of rules we all play by,” he said.

Jordan’s supporters lamented that his withdrawal meant they had lost their best shot at disrupting the usual patterns of how Congress operates — and spends money.

“He was the best Speaker candidate to reform Congress’s spending addiction,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.) said on social media.

Said Rep. Nancy Mace (R., S.C.) on social media: “25 members publicly opposed Jim Jordan and over 100 opposed him privately. Sad so many are willing to hide behind an anonymous vote.” Some backers also cast their colleagues as too afraid to oppose Jordan in public.

Opposition to Jordan had continued to build over a week of votes. The new dissenters in floor vote Friday were Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, a leader of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, Marc Molinaro of New York and Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey. All three members represent districts where voters backed President Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 election.

“We need to open the government. That is the bottom line,” Fitzpatrick said after his vote. “The lights are off in the House of Representatives. That should be unacceptable to every American.”

Lawmakers of both parties are eager to get moving on providing further aid to Israel, as well as funding for Ukraine, Taiwan and U.S. border security. Deadlines are also looming for funding the government past mid-November.

Democratic leaders have continued to express openness to an idea that had picked up some momentum this week to vote to empower temporary speaker McHenry to bring legislation to the House floor. “We are ready, willing and able to find a bipartisan path forward,” said Jeffries.

Many Republicans argued that such a move would take the pressure off the search for a new speaker, and any measure to expand McHenry’s authority would likely require Democratic support and concessions to them.

While some lawmakers, including McCarthy, have suggested a vote isn’t necessary for McHenry to bring legislation to the floor, McHenry himself made clear he would step down before taking steps he views as exceeding his authority.

“If there’s some goal to subvert the House rules to give me powers without a formal vote, I will not accept it,” McHenry told reporters.

Lindsay Wise contributed to this article.

The Wall Street Journal