Several Republican lawmakers emerged from Monday night’s House GOP conference meeting saying they would not vote for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on the eve of his speakership election.
Jordan, 59, came out of the meeting confident that a vote on the full House floor would indeed happen on Tuesday, and that he would be elected House speaker — even though at least six GOP lawmakers still oppose his nomination and others are undecided.
“We need to get a speaker tomorrow,” Jordan told reporters after the meeting. “The American people deserve to have their Congress, their House of Representatives, working, and you can’t do that until you get a speaker, so we have to do it.”
“I enjoyed walking to the conference. I feel better now,” added the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “We have a few more people we want to talk to, listen to, and then we’ll have a vote tomorrow.”
Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) plan to support House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who initially overruled Jordan in a close 113 to 99. voted to run for speaker but dropped out of the race last week after failing to lock in more endorsements.
Jim Jordan (R-OH) speaks to the press as he leaves after a Republican party caucus meeting at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Oct. 16. 2023. AFP via Getty Images
“I’m going to vote the way I voted the first time, the first election we’ve had,” Kelly told reporters Monday. “Integrity is the most important thing we all have. Nothing is more important than that. When I saw what happened in the conference, and understood that we had an election, and we elected someone, and because the people in the conference did not agree with the election, ‘no, no, no, we have to stop. everything now, and we have to have another election.’ The real man in the room is Steve Scalise.”
Diaz-Balart voiced dismay at Jordan’s apparent pressure strategy to put the detention in place Tuesday despite not receiving unanimous support from the conference.
“A little advice if anyone is trying to get my vote,” Díaz-Balart told reporters. “The last thing you want to do is try to pressure me because then I shut down completely.”
“If people think they can pressure me, that’s where they lose me,” he added.
Several Republican lawmakers emerged from Monday night’s House GOP conference meeting saying they would not vote for Jordan on the eve of his speakership. AP
Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), who had pledged to support former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) over Jordan on the House floor, said “no,” when asked after Monday’s meeting if he had changed his mind.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), reportedly the last House lawmaker to leave Monday’s conference meeting with Jordan, has also indicated that he will vote for McCarthy, telling CNN host Jake Tapper that he informed the Ohio Republican that he was not “no,” but that , “unless you have a vote, you know, I won’t be there.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) was still pushing Jordan after Monday’s meeting as well, tweeting, “I’m not budging. I was a commander five times and deployed to the Middle East four times. I will do my best for the country.”
Jordan emerged from the meeting confident that a vote on the full House floor would indeed be held on Tuesday, and that he would be elected speaker of the House.Getty Images
Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) stated that he is not currently endorsing Jordan but is “keeping an open mind.”
“We’re going to meet and I’m not right now but I told him I’d be open minded to having that conversation,” Buck, who reportedly wants to know if Trump-backed Jordan accepts that President Biden legitimately won the 2020 election, told reporters.
Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) said she would only vote for Jordan on Tuesday if her vote was decisive.
“If he doesn’t have 217, the best I can do is maybe vote to be present..I’m okay with being 217, but if he has 210, I’m not going to be 211,” Spartz said.
Despite the holdover, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) declared after the GOP conference meeting that “Jim Jordan is going to be our speaker.”
Jordan is reportedly pitching centrist lawmakers to the fact that he is “willing” to link funding for Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists with aid to Ukraine, according to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas).
“He is open to the fact of joining both Ukraine’s aid to Israel’s funding, which is absolutely necessary,” McCaul told CNN.
Four House Republicans also told Axios that their takeaway from the meeting was that Jordan would at least allow a floor vote to tie Ukrainian funding to money for Israel.
“We need to make sure Israel has the resources they need to win – and win decisively,” Jordan, who has voted against most aid packages to Ukraine, told reporters.
Since McCarthy’s ouster, the lower house has been mired in gridlock, unable to vote on pressing national security concerns such as the war in Israel, the war in Ukraine, and the November 17 government shutdown deadline.
Republicans have a four-seat majority and any potential speaker would need to secure a majority to claim the gavel, which could be 217 depending on attendance.
Back in January, McCarthy took an unprecedented 15 marathon votes to ascend to the speakership, which he did without a single vote.
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