WASHINGTON — A second effort by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to win the House speaker’s gavel fell short Wednesday when he couldn’t get 217 votes from his Republican colleagues.
Jordan lost 22 Republicans ― two more than on Tuesday.
Jordan can try again — it took Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) 15 tries to become speaker in January — but it’s unclear how Jordan could win over the moderate coalition arrayed against him.
Several Republicans said this week they resented the pressure they received from Jordan allies in right-wing media and other fans of the combative House Freedom Caucus founder.
“I think some of the pressure campaigns have backfired,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who backs Jordan, said Tuesday on Fox News, citing conversations with his colleagues.
Others complained that Jordan became the GOP’s speaker-designee through underhanded means after another Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), beat Jordan for the job in an internal election last week.
Republicans have been leaderless since dumping McCarthy earlier this month, and without a speaker, the House has ceased to function. The chamber can’t even pass the kind of symbolic pro-Israel resolution that normally the body would approve almost reflexively when that country came under attack.
Some Republicans have said they should make a deal with Democrats to temporarily empower acting Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) to move legislation. Jordan suggested the idea of empowering McHenry be put to a vote on Wednesday.
Jordan is a major backer of former President Donald Trump, using the House Judiciary Committee as a war room to defend Trump from his various criminal indictments. Before, he helped Trump coordinate his response to losing the 2020 presidential election and spoke with Trump by phone on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob attacked the Capitol.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who voted against Jordan on Tuesday and Wednesday, told HuffPost Jordan had been overly “knowledgeable and involved in the whole challenging the election.”