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| Not you. |
On the third round, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) did not even reach the amount needed to be nominee let alone the secret ballot. Jordan in secret ballot won only 110 members.
The House floor vote was far less than his first two rounds. He lost 26 members.
Now the controversial Ohio Republican is no longer seeking the House Speaker position.
Jordan was abruptly removed as the candidate on Friday. Republicans making the decision during a closed-door session after the hard-edged ally of Washed up 45 failed badly on a third ballot for the gavel.
The outcome left Republicans dejected, frustrated and sinking deeper into turmoil, another week without a House speaker bordering on a full-blown crisis. House Republicans have no realistic or working plan to unite the fractured GOP majority, elect a new speaker and return to the work of Congress that has been languishing since hard-liners ousted Kevin McCarthy at the start of the month.
Afterward, Jordan said simply of his colleagues, “We put the question to them, they made a different decision.”
The hard-charging Judiciary Committee chairman said House Republicans now need to come together and “figure out who our speaker is going to be.”
Their majority control floundering, Republicans left the private session blaming one another for the divisions they have created. Next steps were highly uncertain, as a wide range of Republican lawmakers started pitching themselves for speaker.
But it appears no one at present can win a GOP majority, leaving the House without a speaker and unable to function for the foreseeable future, an embarrassing blow to a central U.S. seat of government.
“We’re in a very bad place right now,” McCarthy said.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise said they would “start over” Monday. New nominees are to come forward for a candidate forum and internal party votes.
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| So how can I win them over? |
Exasperated with no easy solutions in sight, Rep. Mark Alford, a freshman from Missouri, was far from alone in expressing his anger and disappointment.
“I gave up my career to come here to do something for America, to rebuild our military, to get spending under control, to secure our border — and here we are in this quicksand,” he said.
In a floor vote Friday morning, Jordan’s third reach for the gavel, he lost 25 Republican colleagues, worse than he had fared earlier in the week, and leaving him far from the majority needed.
A founder of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, Jordan’s run essentially collapsed in large part because more centrist Republicans are revolting over the nominee they view as too extreme and the hardball tactics being used to win their votes. They have been bombarded with harassing phone calls and even reported death threats.
To win over GOP colleagues, Jordan had relied on backing from Washed Up 45, the party’s front-runner in the 2024 election, and groups pressuring rank-and-file lawmakers for the vote. But they were not enough and in fact backfired on some.
Friday’s vote was 194 for Jordan, his lowest tally yet, and 210 for Jeffries, with two absences on each side.
Tonight, I am announcing my candidacy for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. pic.twitter.com/1wSwQYqoX2
— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) October 20, 2023
In fact, Jordan lost rather than gained votes despite hours spent trying to win over holdouts, no improvement from the 20 and then 22 Republicans he lost in early rounds this week.
McCarthy himself rose in the chamber to nominate Jordan, portraying him as a skilled legislator who reaches for compromise. That drew scoffs of laughter from the Democratic side of the aisle.
Democrats nominated Leader Hakeem Jeffries, with Rep. Katherine Clark calling Jordan, who refused to certify the 2020 presidential election results, “a threat to democracy.”
At a fundraiser Friday night, President Joe Biden offered his own commentary on Jordan’s failure: “He just got his rear end kicked.”
For more than two weeks the stalemate has shut down the U.S. House, leaving a major part of the government severely hobbled at a time of challenges at home and abroad. While Democrats have offered to broker a bipartisan deal to reopen the House, the Republican majority appears to have no idea how to end the political turmoil and get back to work.
With Republicans in control of the House, 221-212, any candidate can lose only a few detractors. It appears there is no Republican at present who can win a clear majority, 217 votes, to become speaker.
One extraordinary idea, to give the interim speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry, more powers for the next several months to at least bring the House back into session and conduct crucial business, was swiftly rejected by Jordan’s own ultra-conservative allies and brushed back by McHenry himself.
A “betrayal,” said Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind.
Republicans predict the House could essentially stay closed until the mid-November deadline for Congress to approve funding or risk a federal government shutdown.
“We’re trying to figure out if there’s a way we can get back with a Republican-only solution,” said veteran legislator Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla.
“That’s what normal majorities do. What this majority has done is prove it’s not a normal majority.”
What’s potentially more unsettling is that it’s not at all clear what the House Republicans are even fighting over any more — let alone if any GOP leader can fix it.
The Republican chaos that erupted Oct. 3, when a small band of eight hardliners led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida orchestrated McCarthy’s historic ouster, has cascaded into angry grievances, new factions and untested alliances.
Gaetz and the hardliners wanted to punish McCarthy for a number of perceived wrongs, including passing legislation with Democrats to keep the government funded and prevent a federal shutdown.
But when Scalise won the nomination to replace McCarthy, Jordan’s allies broke from party rules and blocked the Louisianan’s rise. Scalise abruptly withdrew his nomination.
Angry that Scalise didn’t seem to get fair treatment, more mainstream Republicans staged their own revolt against hard-liner Jordan, saying he didn’t deserve the gavel.
Weeks of heated, fiery meetings later, Republicans have drifted far off track from what had been their House majority’s stated priorities of cutting spending and other goals.
Democratic Leader Jeffries reiterated that his party was “ready, willing and able” to work with more traditional Republicans on a path to reopen the House —- particularly as Congress is being asked to consider Biden’s aid package for Israel, Ukraine and other needs.
Jordan has been a top Washed Up 45 ally, particularly during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack by the former president’s backers who were trying to overturn the 2020 election he lost to Biden. Days later, the former president awarded Jordan a Medal of Freedom.
First elected in 2006, Jordan has few bills to his name from his time in office. He also faces questions about his past.
Some years ago, Jordan denied allegations from former wrestlers during his time as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University who accused him of knowing about claims they were inappropriately groped by an Ohio State doctor. Jordan has said he was never aware of any abuse.
Now an insufferable lawmaker from Florida announced his bid. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) is now considering a bid for Speaker.
Donalds had been supporting Jordan for speaker. When asked on Thursday if he would consider being speaker if Jordan got out of the race, Donalds said: “People float my name for a lot of things. Right now I’m here to do a lot of things. We have to fund the government.”
The Naples resident became nationally known in January, when he emerged for a couple of days as an alternative candidate for U.S. speaker before House Republicans ultimately elected Kevin McCarthy of California to the post on the 15th ballot.
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| Byron, you maybe the only person we could back. You're Black, conservative and a perfect example of knowing your place. |
Donalds, who turns 45 next week, has served as the U.S. House in Florida’s 19th Congressional District, encompassing parts of both Lee and Collier counties along Florida’s Gulf Coast since January 2021. Prior to that he served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2016-2020.
At that time, Donalds was one of the few Black Republicans in the Florida Legislature. And now, Donalds is one of the few Black Republicans in the U.S. House.
If he were to win the Speaker’s race, Donalds would make history by becoming the first Black man to lead the U.S. House of Representatives. Meanwhile, New York Democrat Hakeem Jeffries was elected last year to be the first Black House Minority Leader, making him the first Black person to lead a major party’s Caucus in either chamber of Congress.
Donalds was raised in Brooklyn and graduated from Florida State University in 2002, where he received a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing. His career then took him to Southwest Florida, where he worked in banking, finance, and insurance.
Donalds first ran for Congress in 2012 but came in fifth in a six-person Republican primary. He filed to run in 2014 but ultimately stood down. His electoral career recommenced in 2016, when he won election to the Florida House of Representatives.
Following two terms there, Donalds narrowly won a Republican primary for his congressional district in 2020 (winning by less than 1 percentage point over state House Republican Dane Eagle) before easily defeating Democrat Cindy Banyai by more than 22 percentage points in the general election. He beat Banyai in a rematch last November by 36 points.
He is a former drug dealer turned far right Black extremist.
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