After dumping Jim Jordan as speaker, House Republicans are starting again

After dumping Jim Jordan as speaker, House Republicans are starting again
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Just seconds after the Donald Trump-backed candidate was rejected on the House floor for the third time this week, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, announced his withdrawal from the race for speaker on Friday. He had just lost a vote of confidence in a closed-door meeting of Republicans.

According to members leaving the meeting, 86 Republicans supported Jordan, the most recent GOP candidate for speaker, while 112 said they wanted to move on and choose another candidate.

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Jordan recalled his advice to his coworkers at the meeting: “We need to get together and decide who our speaker is going to be.” “I’m gonna work as much as I can to help that person so that we are able to help the American people.”

It added yet another unforeseen wrinkle to the GOP’s ongoing speaker issue and further disrupted the chamber.

House Republicans won’t be back in the capital until Monday when they’ll have a third forum on speaker contenders in the late afternoon. The House may have a floor vote on Tuesday at 9 a.m. ET, according to Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry, a Republican from North Carolina.

McHenry joked with reporters, referring to his current position as chairman of that panel: “It’s my goal to be speaking to you at this time next Friday as the chairman of the Financial Services Committee.”

Sunday at 12:00 ET is the deadline for candidates to declare their candidacy. According to two people close to the congressman, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the third-ranking Republican in the leadership, started making calls for a speaker bid on Friday. Former Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California soon endorsed Emmer, while Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana began making calls, according to a source.

Little-known Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., who unsuccessfully challenged Jordan for speaker, announced he would run again. Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., who had previously toyed with the idea, also announced his candidacy.

As he exited the room, Hern, the head of the Republican Study Committee, the biggest group of conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill, said to NBC News, “I’m in.”

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., who received a nomination for speaker by his conservative Freedom Caucus colleagues in January, and Reps. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general, are among the others who have declared their candidacies.

Several other Republicans from Texas, including Rep. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania and Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, both of whom are former corporate executives, are thinking about joining the fray as well.

“I was raised in the business world, and I intend to bring, if I run, a business viewpoint to things and gain consensus,” Meuser stated.

Even his closest allies had doubts about Jordan’s ability to win the speaker’s gavel for a third time earlier on Friday when a “hodgepodge” of 25 steadfast GOP MPs prevented him from doing so.

Jordan, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, garnered 194 votes, 21 fewer than the total required to be chosen speaker of the House on the basis of attendance. Support for New York’s Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, came from all 210 Democrats.

Jordan garnered five fewer votes than on the second ballot on Wednesday, which indicated that things were not going well for his ambition to become the speaker.

As he left the House floor on Friday, McCarthy declared, “We are in a very bad place right now.

Another House Republican who supports Jordan chimed in, saying that the conference as a whole was “completely paralyzed and ungovernable.”

On Friday, Jordan was unable to win over any of his opponents, and three of his moderate supporters switched their votes to back other candidates in the roll call. While vulnerable Reps. Tom Kean of New Jersey and Marc Molinaro of New York voted for McCarthy and former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., respectively, and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., co-chair of the nonpartisan Problem Solvers, moved to McHenry.

In an interview before the vote, Molinaro expressed the opinion that the best course of action would be “to return to conference & select a conservative who can actually unite the conference.”

“And by the way, give Jim that opportunity to present that case,” he continued. “Not by continuous votes on the floor, instead through a real conversation once at the conference.”

Supporter of Jordan Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., was away from the vote visiting Israel to assess the situation there during that country’s conflict with Hamas.

The group of anti-Jordan Republicans is made up of a mix of moderates, conservatives, New Yorkers, Floridians, defense hawks, and appropriators, including the influential Appropriations Chair Kay Granger of Texas. This is in contrast to the conservative hard-liners who ousted McCarthy from the speaker’s office on October 3 and thwarted Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s attempt to succeed him.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Republican from Georgia who supports Jordan, said, “This is more of a hodgepodge group.”

Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas was observed smoking a cigar after the vote while stating to reporters that Jordan “does not possess the votes.” Nehls declared that his fourth vote would go to Trump after supporting Jordan in the first three votes.

McCarthy and his friends yelled at Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., the head of the eight Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy as speaker over three weeks ago, during a private GOP meeting the day before, escalating tensions.

The “Hateful Eight,” as McCarthy has dubbed them, made an effort to mend fences on Friday, sending a letter to peers that NBC News was able to obtain in which they offered to accept punishment, including censure or expulsion from the conference if it would convince holdouts to support Jordan.

“What unites us as Republicans is more significant than our disagreements,” they stated in a letter. “We need to get together to elect Jim Jordan.”

The opposition to Jordan, however, did not appear to be weakening in the wake of Friday’s decision. Nothing, according to Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., a McCarthy supporter, would cause him to switch his vote to Jordan.

Jordan enquired as to our desires. A committee is not what we need. We have no desires. He finds it challenging to ask, “Hey, what can I do to please you?” Gimenez described a meeting he had with Jordan on Thursday.

He added, “I think the 22 [holdouts] are pretty solid. “We acquired three more. You’ve got your chance, let’s go, let’s move on, I think more people will start to agree. Maintaining this divides the party.

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