The U.S. House of Representatives has been without a House speaker for 17 days — and after a majority of Republican representatives torpedoed Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan’s bid for the leadership position Friday, a solution remains elusive.
Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and House Freedom Caucus co-founder, was removed as the Republican Party’s nominee for speaker of the House Friday afternoon, one week after winning the party’s nomination.
GOP lawmakers made the decision in a secret-ballot vote to determine the future of Jordan’s leadership bid after he failed to secure a House majority in the third floor vote this week. House Republicans were asked to reaffirm the Ohio Congressman as the party’s nominee — 112 voted “no,” and 86 voted “yes,” according to CNN’s Melanie Zanona.
“The conference asked him to be done, and for obvious reasons,” Utah Republican Rep. John Curtis said in a video statement following the vote. “Whether you like Jim or not, he was not going to become speaker.”
On Friday morning, after days spent meeting with holdout votes and considering possible off-ramps for the speaker’s race, Jordan received the support of 194 colleagues in a floor vote to become speaker, five less than Wednesday’s attempt and 21 short of a House majority, with some members absent for the weekend. House Democrats voted unanimously in favor of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
The result added to worries among conference members that no Republican can secure the needed votes from their deeply divided party and led to Jordan’s removal as the party’s nominee.
What’s next for the House speaker’s race?
Following Jordan’s ouster, lawmaker’s were sent home for the weekend and will return Monday evening for a candidate forum, in a repeat of this week’s schedule.
“Where does that put us? We now start the whole process over,” Curtis said in the video.
According to multiple sources on Capitol Hill, several House Republicans have already thrown their hats in the ring ahead of Sunday’s deadline. They include: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Georgia congressman Rep. Austin Scott — who challenged Jordan last week — Freedom Caucus member Byron Donalds of Florida, and Republican Conference Vice Chairman Mike Johnson of Louisiana.
Candidates will make their cases to GOP lawmakers Monday evening. An internal GOP nominating election will likely take place on Tuesday, Curtis says, followed by yet another floor vote to elect a House speaker.
“Let me just remind you,” Curtis said in the video, “this person’s third in line in succession to the presidency. You don’t want us to pick this person in a couple of hours.”
Speaker-less, the House has been paralyzed and unable to make any progress on its annual spending bills with nonessential federal funding set to run out in one month and President Joe Biden calling on Congress for supplemental aid packages for Israel and Ukraine in a Thursday night address.
“I don’t blame you if you’re mad at us, you should be. We’re dysfunctional,” Curtis said at the conclusion of his video. “Hopefully, we get our act together and get a speaker early next week.”