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House Republicans voted to drop Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan as the party's House speaker nominee after a third defeat in votes earlier today, plunging the GOP into further chaos as pressure mounts for them to unify behind a candidate. Absences heading into the weekend could lower the majority threshold needed, and Republicans said they were down about a dozen lawmakers as of midday Friday. No floor votes were scheduled as attendance thinned before the weekend. While the firebrand Jordan has a long list of detractors who started making their opposition known, Jordan’s supporters said voting against the Trump ally during a public vote on the House floor would be tougher since he is so popular and well known among more conservative GOP voters. But not all Republicans want to see Jordan as speaker, second in line to the presidency.
Kelly votes against Jordan, choosing Scalise instead
Democrats now outnumber Republicans here, though turnout still tends to favor the GOP. (We had 18 until this year; after the 2020 Census count found that the state population had shrunk, the L.A. area lost one representative.) You can double check your district and your representative here. The House has a total of 435 representatives, each of whom represents a district. District lines are drawn so that each represents roughly the same number of people — 700,000 on average.
Emmer calling fellow Republicans about a speaker bid
But when Scalise won the nomination to replace McCarthy, Jordan’s allies broke from party rules and blocked the Louisianan’s rise. 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. This district runs from Brea and Fullerton in north Orange County, out east to “Little India” in Artesia, before heading south to the center of the region’s political gravity in Westminster and Garden Grove — Little Saigon. Once presumed to be a Republican stronghold, the stereotype of a community full of anti-communist Cold Warriors hasn’t rung true for a while.
GOP members who bucked McCarthy call on colleagues to back Jordan
The conference previously voted to nominate Scalise over Jordan on Wednesday, but the majority leader failed to attract enough support to win a majority in the full House and dropped his bid by Thursday evening. Jordan, the GOP’s latest nominee for speaker, who lost two rounds of votes this week, had floated the idea of temporarily empowering McHenry while he worked to shore up enough support for his own candidacy, according to three sources. The plan would have empowered McHenry until January, the sources said, allowing legislative business to continue in the face of two wars and a looming government shutdown. What makes this showdown between the two rivals different is that Garcia is now an elected member of Congress. That affords him the typical advantages of an incumbent, but it also means that the conservative congressman, who hasn’t always softened his positions to match the blue hue of his district, will have to defend his record.
Republican Leadership
Despite their differences, McCarthy said he asked Jordan to lead House Oversight and the Judiciary committees because of he was the right person for those positions. “That is who Jim Jordan is, and that’s what being a speaker is all about,” McCarthy said. McCarthy touted Jordan’s legislative record, including passage of a border security bill, saying Jordan sought to find compromise with members on the legislation. He also claimed Democrats were voting against Jordan because they opposed the bill. House Democrats broke into applause and chanted Hakeem Jeffries' first name after nominating him for speaker. He voted for Scalise in the first round and former Speaker John Boehner in the second.
NPR political correspondent Susan Davis is covering all of this and joins me now. Supporters of Jordan, who secured 99 votes during the first secret ballot vote earlier this week, have suggested he can win the gavel, though his candidacy was already running into resistance from moderate Republicans before his nomination. Rep. Mike Garcia of California indicated some GOP lawmakers would be turned away from supporting the Ohio conservative following the week's events. The House left for the weekend late Friday afternoon without a permanent speaker. WASHINGTON — Republicans chose firebrand Rep. Jim Jordan as their new nominee for House speaker during internal voting Friday, putting the gavel within reach of the staunch ally of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a Jordan ally, was confident that the Ohio Republican could win the gavel on the floor but conceded it could take several rounds of voting.
Rep. Clark nominates Jeffries
Representatives are elected to two-year terms without term limits, so they’re on your ballot a lot. Many have been reelected time and time again — for instance, Rep. Maxine Waters of District 43 (which includes Inglewood, Hawthorne and Torrance) has been in her seat since 1990. Jordan also received an important nod today from the Republican Party’s campaign chairman, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., who made an attempt to unify the fighting factions.
House Republicans have selected Rep. Jim Jordan as their nominee for Speaker of the House. Jordan was once a far-right outsider who has become a far-right insider as the party has evolved. Trump, the early front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, had announced his preference early for Jordan, and he and allies repeatedly discussed Scalise’s battle against cancer.
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. Friday’s vote was 194 for Jordan, his lowest tally yet, and 210 for Jeffries, with two absences on each side. LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network.
Some members have also raised the possibility of a consensus candidate if Jordan fails to secure the required support to become speaker. North Carolina Rep. Greg Murphy raised McHenry and Reps. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma and Byron Donalds of Florida as potential "compromise" candidates. "Our conference still has to come together and is not there," he said. "There are still some people that have their own agendas, and I was very clear, we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs." Exasperated Democrats, who have been waiting for the Republican majority to recover from McCarthy’s ouster, urged them to figure it out. Scalise has been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer known as multiple myeloma and is being treated, but he has also said he was definitely up for the speaker’s job.
Tom Kean of New Jersey voted McCarthy, another flip away from Jordan. Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., voted for Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., once again. Rep. Ken Buck's name also was included on a draft of the letter, but his office said he had been included in error. "After retiring from the military in 2014, I made a solemn promise to the Jewish people that if anything like what took place on October 7, 2023, were to ever happen, that I would help them and their nation to the best of my ability," he wrote.
GOP drops Jim Jordan as House speaker nominee after he loses 3rd vote - CBS News
GOP drops Jim Jordan as House speaker nominee after he loses 3rd vote.
Posted: Fri, 20 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The House was called into session for the third round of voting on Jim Jordan for speaker of the House. After a quorum call, the House is moving on to the vote on Jim Jordan's candidacy for speaker. Majority Leader Steve Scalise is sitting far away from leadership again. "Over his 16 years in the House, he has never supported a farm bill," Clark said.
Top Republicans continue to express no interest in seeking help from Democrats to resolve their internal party problems. It is unclear whether Jordan will fall to the same fate as Scalise, as winning the nomination is far different from winning on the House floor. “We need to come together and figure out who our speaker is going to be,” Mr. Jordan said, acknowledging his defeat. He said he would turn his focus back to the investigations he is leading into the Biden administration as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. House Republicans will meet again on Monday in an effort to find a new speaker from among a flurry of new candidates. A group of four moderate House Democrats raised the prospect of empowering McHenry to bring specific bills before the House while the speaker fight plays out.
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