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Two strikes, he’s out. Jim Jordan will not attempt a third floor vote to confirm his nomination for the speakership.
Following two failed votes on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Ohio congressman has determined not to bring his nomination to the floor on Thursday. He will instead back the interim appointment of Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) as House speaker through January, according to multiple reports.
Jordan insisted on Wednesday that he did not support the push to appoint McHenry, and was reportedly planning as late as Thursday morning to put himself up for a third vote. It’s unclear whether Jordan will try again in 2024, or before then if McHenry isn’t appointed.
Despite an intense pressure campaign by Jordan’s allies to persuade Republican holdouts to back him, Jordan lost additional votes on Wednesday’s attempt to secure the gavel, with 22 Republicans opposing him compared to 20 on Tuesday. CNN reported that multiple GOP sources felt the number would increase to as many as 30 if he made another attempt.
For the better part of a month now, Republican infighting has brought Congress to a standstill and created a leadership crisis that has left the speakership vacant for more than two weeks. What began as a dispute between hardline members of the House GOP and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) brought the government to the edge of a shutdown in late September. In retaliation for McCarthy’s negotiation of a funding extension to avoid the shutdown, Rep. Matt Gaetz and a gaggle of his allies ousted him from leadership.
No candidate has been able to secure the 217 Republican votes needed to confirm a new speaker. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) was the first to secure a nomination but bowed out of the race once it became clear he did not have the support for a successful floor vote. Despite an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, Jordan has also struggled to overcome the reality that the Republican majority in the House is so narrow that a candidate must be elected by near-unanimous consent in order to take up the gavel.
