Jim Jordan will not be the next speaker of the House. That became abundantly clear, if it wasn’t already, when Jordan lost a third round of voting on the House floor Friday and Republicans then dumped him as their nominee in secret balloting at a closed-door meeting.
“We are in a very bad place right now,” former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy acknowledged to reporters after the vote, in which 25 Republicans refused to support Jordan.
The GOP has been in a bad place for a while. The House has gone 17 days without a speaker — and without being able to handle the nation’s business — after McCarthy was ousted from the job early this month. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise failed to unify his conference and withdrew without a floor vote. Jordan failed three times to win a majority of votes on the House floor. And a briefly considered plan to empower Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry was angrily rejected Thursday by far-right lawmakers.
Republicans must now try to come up with a Plan D. They will resume their race for the speakership on Monday evening with a candidate forum meant to select a new nominee. Candidates will have until Sunday at noon to put forth their names, but at least seven lawmakers are reportedly in the running already. The Republican conference is scheduled to hold an election on Tuesday morning.
McCarthy on Friday afternoon endorsed House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the No. 3 Republican in the chamber. "He is the right person for the job,” McCarthy said. “He can unite the conference. He understands the dynamics of the conference. He also understands what it takes to win and keep a majority."
Other lawmakers who are running or reported to be considering it include Reps. Jack Bergman of Michigan; Byron Donalds of Florida; Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, the leader of the Republican Study Committee; Mike Johnson of Louisiana; Pete Sessions of Texas and Austin Scott of Georgia.
The bottom line: Another wasted week in the House, with no clear path yet for Republicans to resolve their differences and pick a new speaker.
