World and Nation

Jim Jordan loses first vote for House speaker amid GOP defections

eremy Herb, Manu Raju, Melanie Zanona, Annie Grayer and Haley Talbot, CNN

October 17, 2023

CNN — Conservative Republican Rep. Jim Jordan fell significantly short of winning the House speaker’s gavel on a first ballot Tuesday, leaving the House in paralysis after 20 Republicans opposed the Ohio Republican.

The vote, in which Jordan failed to secure a majority of the full House, was a disappointment for Jordan’s allies who had expressed hopes that the number of holdouts would be in the single digits.

Immediately after the vote, the House went into recess, giving Jordan time to try to convince his opponents – a group of GOP moderates and allies of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Majority Leader Steve Scalise – to change their votes.

The 20 Republicans who voted against Jordan included House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger of Texas, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado and a quartet of New York Republicans in purple districts.

The anti-Jordan contingent cast six votes for McCarthy, seven votes for Scalise and three for former New York GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin, among other alternatives.

It’s now been two weeks of high-stakes chaos over the speaker’s gavel following the unprecedented ouster of McCarthy. The House’s slim margin is what led to McCarthy’s removal at the hands of a band of eight GOP rebels – and now a similarly sized group of House Republicans could block Jordan’s ascension, too.

In January, 19 Republicans initially voted against McCarthy for speaker, before he eventually won a majority and the gavel after 15 votes. Jordan hasn’t signaled how long he plans to take his push to become speaker. After the first vote, Jordan was meeting with members in the GOP cloakroom off the House floor.

“I feel really good,” Jordan told CNN just before the vote. “Whatever it takes to get a speaker today.”

Jordan and his allies felt they had made significant headway over the past several days, with the Ohio Republican pitching skeptical lawmakers one on one – and his allies outside Congress attacking the holdouts and threatening political consequences if they stand against a favorite of the Trump-aligned GOP base.

Until the House selects a speaker, the chamber is in a legislative paralysis, unable to consider legislation, such as passing additional military aid to Israel or government funding – with the threat of a shutdown just a month away thanks to McCarthy’s six-week stopgap spending deal that prompted the move against him.

If another vote is held, at least one of Jordan’s opponents said he would flip – though others could opt against sticking with the Ohio Republican.

GOP Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California, a longtime McCarthy ally who voted for McCarthy on the first ballot, told reporters he will vote for Jordan on the second ballot.

“I’m not against him,” LaMalfa said of Jordan. “I was for Kevin McCarthy the whole time and I thought the process has been terrible, what has happened to him and the things that he’s been held up for. So I’m voting for Jim Jordan because he’s a good guy. He’s done good work on committee. And we need to move forward with this place today, and get our work done.”

Others said they cannot be moved. GOP Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida, who voted for McCarthy, said he will never vote for Jordan but would consider voting for other candidates.

“I think we need to move forward as a conference and find somebody that we can all coalesce around,” Gimenez said.

A group of centrist New York Republicans – a key bloc of lawmakers in the House, who helped hand the GOP the majority – privately discussed their vote for speaker for weeks, conferring with one another and weighing the idea of voting as a bloc, sources tell CNN.

As they wrestled with whether to back Jordan, one thing that came up repeatedly and gave them pause: Jordan’s votes against key priorities in New York, including voting against aid for superstorm Sandy and against 9/11 health care funding for first responders.

But they didn’t make a final decision on how they would vote until Tuesday morning, sources said. Four voted against Jordan.

Jordan’s opponents angry with House process

On Monday, several key holdouts said they would support Jordan, including Rep. Ann Wagner of Missouri, who had previously called Jordan a “nonstarter.”

“I feel like he can bring together everybody, from the moderates to the ultra conservatives, and Republicans across the spectrum,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York. “The bottom line is we’ve got to get back to work. We don’t have any time here to waste.”

But there remains a group of lawmakers publicly opposing Jordan, including GOP lawmakers still angry that a small group of Republicans forced out McCarthy and then opposed the speaker nomination of Scalise, who initially defeated Jordan inside the GOP conference, 113 to 99.

“I can’t get past the fact that a small group in our conference violated the rules to get rid of Kevin, and then blocked Steve,” said Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who voted for McCarthy on the first ballot. “You don’t have a process where I play by the rules and these other people can’t and then they get what they want. That’s not American. Americans want fair play and rule of law.”

House Democrats have blasted Republicans for putting forward Jordan as the next potential speaker. “I was the last person on the floor January 6, and the idea that this guy is the Republican nominee to be speaker, a guy who aggressively agitated the activities that happened on January 6, I think is disgusting,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat.

Jordan’s backers have urged the conference to unify around him – even those who went after McCarthy and opposed Scalise.

Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania argued that those angry shouldn’t take it out on Jordan because he supported both McCarthy and Scalise.

“Feelings are hurt,” Perry said. “But Jim didn’t have anything to do with that. So they need to assign their ire, if you will, to those who they think deserve it – but certainly not Jim Jordan.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Lauren Fox, Kristin Wilson, Morgan Rimmer, Clare Foran and Sam Fossum contributed to this report.