The US House of Representatives failed to vote on a speaker after multiple Republicans voted against Rep Jim Jordan, despite the overwhelming majority of the House GOP conference voting to make him speaker.
The vote against Mr Jordan comes as the House marks two weeks since Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL) filed a motion to vacate, which led to seven other Republicans and every Democratic representative present to depose former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Mr Jordan’s nomination came after House Majority Steve Scalise removed himself from the running despite the fact he beat Mr Jordan in an internal vote within the GOP conference. Mr Jordan had worked to win over many skeptics within his party and successfully flipped many of them.
But Mr Jordan needed to win 216 of the 220 votes present in the chamber that day. Ultimately Reps Don Bacon of Nebraska, Carlos Gimenez of Florida, Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, John Rutherford of Florida, Mike Simpson of Idaho, Tony Gonzales of Texas, Nick LaLota of New York, Mike Lawler of New York, John James of Michigan, Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon, Jake Ellzey of Texas, Anthony D’Esposito of New York, Andrew Garbarino of New York, Ken Buck of Colorado, Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania and Jen Kiggans of Virginia opposed him opposed his nomination. Reps David Joyce of Ohio did not vote.
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Many Republicans cast their votes for Mr McCarthy and Mr Scalise in protest of how they were treated. On Tuesday, Mr Bacon had protested how some conservatives had deposed Mr McCarthy and blocked Mr Scalise.
“So my main concern is, as an American, we believe in the rule of law and fairness,” Mr Bacon told reporters on Monday evening before a meeting among House Republicans. “And we had a small group of folks who broke our rules and got rid of Kevin and then a small group broke our rules and blocked Steve.”
By contrast, Democrats unanimously voted for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
The impasse comes as the House faces numerous crises it must address. Congress must pass the legislation to keep the government open in November. The handful of conservatives had voted to depose Mr McCarthy because had passed a “clean” continuing resolution to keep the government open without any conservative riders in September.
In addition, many in Congress – not just in the House, but also the Senate – hope to pass aid packages to Ukraine as it seeks to push back against Russian aggression and to Israel as it seeks to respond to a terrorist from Hamas.
