House Republicans won’t meet again for votes until Friday morning as the fight to elect a new speaker drags on into its fourth day and Speaker Designate Jim Jordan (R-OH) continues to try and convince key GOP holdouts to support his quest for the gavel.
Jordan met with several of the 22 Republicans who voted against his nomination on Thursday evening in an effort to chip away at the mounting opposition and inch his way closer to the 217 votes needed to clinch the speaker’s gavel. However, the Ohio Republican walked away from the meeting with little progress to show, as several of the holdouts indicated they were unconvinced to change their vote.
JIM JORDAN WON'T HOLD THIRD BALLOT, WILL BACK TEMPORARY POWERS FOR MCHENRY
The House will reconvene at 10 a.m. for a third round of speaker votes, although it remains unclear what next steps will be if Jordan still falls short of the 217-majority threshold.
Republicans initially planned to postpone a third round of speakership votes on Thursday afternoon to instead pursue a resolution that would expand the powers of Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) until the House could come to a consensus on a nominee. However, Republicans quickly poured cold water on that proposal, vowing to sink the resolution if it came to the floor for a vote.
Because of the staunch GOP opposition, the resolution would likely have relied on some Democratic support in order to push it across the finish line.
“There currently is enough Republican ‘no’ votes that it can't pass unless Democrats save it,” said Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN). “We've got to get back to voting for speaker. That's what we're here for. That's what we need to be doing. If Jim gets the votes, great. If Jim can’t get the votes, then we need to vote on somebody else.”
Other Republicans say they oppose empowering the interim speaker position because it would weaken their party, arguing such a move would effectively dismantle their majority by handing power over to the Democrats.
“Republican voters gave us the majority. And the whole reason why we're in this mess is because we had Republicans working with Democrats,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), referring to the eight Republicans who voted with all Democrats to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). “So we shouldn’t go into a situation where we’re going to work with Democrats and enter some sort of power-sharing agreement.”
Democrats have repeatedly called on their GOP colleagues to enter into bipartisan talks to advance some sort of unity candidate in order to reopen the House, including an effort to expand McHenry’s power to make progress on must-pass legislation. However, many said they would need to see the text of any resolution before deciding to support it.
“We have to see the details, obviously. I want to hear from [Democratic] leadership after they've heard from the Republican caucus,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL). “But listen, it's time to reopen the house that the Republicans closed. It's a national security issue now dealing with the situation in Israel.”
But for now, Republicans are back at square one as Jordan is expected to bleed out more support among Republicans who feel he will never be able to overcome the resistance by centrists. That in turn has led to calls for him to drop out.
"I'm tired of futzing around with this," said Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC), who voted for Jordan on the first two rounds. "I personally think it's time for somebody to step down and move on and have another candidate."
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Others acknowledge the conference can only go so many rounds on the floor before moving on to someone else.
"I think if he's not making progress, and indeed he's hemorrhaging votes, then yeah, I think we need to go back to the drawing board," said Gallagher.