Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) suffered a third defeat on his way to becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives. 25 Republican representatives voted against him. This time he needed 214 votes to win the majority.
The path forward is not clear. This Friday morning, October 20, Representative Jim Jordan hosted a press conference in which he insisted on the need to elect a speaker soon and keep the House working. Jordan recalled that it took 15 rounds of voting to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker. Jordan has just finished the third round. He indicated that he plans to remain in the race for the speakership.
However, on the moderate side, several congressmen have made it clear that they will not vote for Jordan. Some representatives of swing districts are concerned about voting for one of the most conservative members of the Republican Party and think that such a decision would hurt them in the next election. Others are simply angry with the most conservative wing of the party - to which Jordan belongs - and have decided to vote against the representative as a punishment for ousting McCarthy.
The key point is that neither moderates nor conservatives are going to get anything if they do not reach a certain degree of consensus. Given the narrow majority that Republicans have in the House, whoever wants to become speaker cannot lose more than four votes from their party.
A possible unexpected twist?
According to Jordan's press conference this morning, it seems that the Ohio representative intends to keep trying and at least try to get a few more votes. However, after a third defeat, other possible candidates are gaining traction among the moderates who are not convinced that Jordan has what it takes.
While all this is happening, Patrick McHenry is getting more and more attention and the matter could end up taking an unexpected turn. McHenry is now interim Speaker of the House until McCarthy's replacement is elected but given the difficulty in reaching an agreement, more and more Republicans, including Jordan himself, are talking about temporarily expanding McHenry's powers. With the resounding rejection of this possibility by several hard-line conservatives who demand the immediate election of the new speaker, the chances that even some Republicans will join with Democrats to vote for McHenry are becoming increasingly higher.
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said this week that McHenry is highly respected in his party and even claimed that some "informal conversations" took place to reach an agreement on a Republican speaker. Some moderate Republicans may end up siding with Democrats to prevent Jordan from getting elected. This could temporarily expand McHenry's powers.
