The House speaker election could continue through the weekend if Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) loses the third round of voting Friday, he told reporters in a morning press conference as Republicans have failed to coalesce behind a new leader, leaving the House at a standstill for nearly three weeks.
U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the Republican Speaker designee, speaks during a press conference at ... [+]
Jordan said Republicans’ “plan this weekend is to get a speaker elected to the House of Representatives as soon as possible,” he told reporters, appearing defiant after losing the first two rounds of the speaker election on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Jordan, a conservative firebrand named “speaker designate” after earning the GOP nomination last week, expressed confidence he could win over his detractors, noting “there’s been multiple rounds of votes for speaker before,” referencing Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) speaker election, when the contest extended to 15 ballots.
The House is slated to conduct a third round of voting Friday after delaying the election Thursday as it became apparent Jordan did not have the votes to reach the 217 majority threshold needed to win.
“You all said we were gonna lose 10 to 15 votes [in the second round],” Jordan told reporters. “We stayed the same. We picked up a few, we lost a few. I think the ones we lost can come back.”
The House voted for the first time Tuesday to elect a replacement for McCarthy after he was removed in a far-right revolt on October 3. The vacancy has frozen business in the House, which is unable to vote on legislation without a speaker to bring bills to the floor—a stalemate that comes at a consequential time as President Joe Biden has said he will ask Congress to approve additional aid for Israel and Ukraine and a new budget is due on November 17. Jordan lost the first round of voting as 20 GOP members cast their ballots for other candidates, and he shed two additional votes in a second round on Wednesday.
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