Rep Jim Jordan was nominated for speaker by conservative hardliners during second and third ballots

Table Of Content

• Calmes: That scowl. The gag order. Frightened jurors. Who’s on trial, a former president or a mob boss?
• things to know about Jim Jordan and his bid to be House speaker
• Committees
• How this Congress keeps setting records with its speaker votes
• Editorial: Speaker Johnson must ignore GOP hardliners and pass Ukraine aid now
• Jordan says he's ready to keep voting "until we get a speaker"

GOP Rep. Bob Good told Raju that some voters are “dead set” in their opposition to McCarthy, and plan on voting for Jordan again in the third ballot. CNN Capitol Hill reporter Melanie Zanona says to watch if any of the 19 lawmakers who voted against McCarthy in the second ballot will change their votes the third time around. Jordan, in an effort to show party unity, nominated GOP leader Kevin McCarthy in the second round of voting.

Calmes: That scowl. The gag order. Frightened jurors. Who’s on trial, a former president or a mob boss?

A number of the group's members, for example, issued threats in 2015 to oust John Boehner as speaker of the House, especially because of his bipartisan deals to fund the government and prevent shutdowns. Ultimately, Boehner voluntarily resigned from the post and from Congress that September after months of pressure and opposition from far-right lawmakers. Jordan has been a polarizing figure on Capitol Hill over the last several years, and he has come under scrutiny for his previous job as a wrestling coach.

things to know about Jim Jordan and his bid to be House speaker

Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who already voted twice against McCarthy, nominated Jordan for speaker in the third round. Despite this, when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the creation of a select committee to investigate the events leading up and on Jan. 6, 2021, McCarthy, who was the minority leader, picked Jordan to be one of the Republicans on the committee. A controversy that has reemerged with Jordan vying for the speakership dates back to his time as a wrestling coach at The Ohio State University before he became a state legislator. Jordan lambasted the congressional and federal investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He also sought to prevent the impeachment inquiry hearing over Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from proceeding. In 1994 he was first elected to public office, beginning the first of his three terms in the Ohio House of Representatives.

Committees

And there has been all sorts of faux urgency about the need to elect a speaker so the House, leaderless since McCarthy’s defenestration, can get back to business. Jordan-the-bomb-thrower might ultimately win the speakership of the House. But setting aside those glaring defects, what is singularly, unequivocally disqualifying is Jordan’s attempts, at Trump’s beckoning, to subvert an election that even Trump officials called the most secure in American history. All the talk of voter fraud, ballot-stuffing and other alleged subterfuge — which Jordan has widely promoted — is pure bunk. Jordan lost the first round of voting on Tuesday and fell well short again Wednesday, thus sparing the nation, in this time of war abroad and strife at home, the calamity that could ensue if the gavel falls into his weaselly grasp.

Jim Jordan (born February 17, 1964, Troy, Ohio, U.S.) Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio, who is widely seen as one of the legislative body’s most conservative members. Jordan was first elected to Congress in 2006 and was instrumental in the founding of the House Freedom Caucus in 2015, becoming the first chair of the group of ultra-conservative House members. Jordan, a close ally of former U.S. president Donald Trump, sought to be elected speaker of the House in October 2023 after Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster from that role. The House passed a long-stalled foreign aid package on Saturday that gives funding to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, with a majority of lawmakers backing money for American allies across the globe. The package, which now goes to the Senate, is almost certain to become law.

But the blot won’t go away for members of California’s GOP delegation, who lashed themselves even closer Wednesday to Jordan’s sinking ship. Republican Rep. Chip Roy, who voted for Rep. Byron Donalds on the first ballot and Rep. Jim Jordan on the second, railed against McCarthy as part of the establishment. No one received enough votes to become House speaker after a historic second vote. The abuse sprang into focus decades after it happened, when former students accused physician Richard Strauss of abusing wrestlers and other athletes. An independent investigation conducted by law firm Perkins Coie on behalf of The Ohio State University and released in 2019 alleged Strauss abused at least 177 students while he was a school doctor, including at least 48 wrestlers.

Column: These California Republicans voted for Jim Jordan and against the good of the country. Remember their names

Jordan, a 59-year-old native of Troy, Ohio, has spent most of his adult life as a politician, becoming an Ohio state representative in 1995. Jordan was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the most conservative members of the party that was established to oust then-House Speaker John Boehner, which was ultimately successful. During former President Donald Trump's presidency, Trump found in Jordan an ally who, like Trump, rarely held back. Since Jordan joined the House in 2007, he has gained a reputation as an outspoken critic of Democratic White Houses whose flamethrowing tactics have singed Republicans as well. A hard-right conservative from Ohio, Jordan is the face of the GOP investigations into the Biden administration. Jordan served on the House committee that investigated the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans were killed, including U.S.

House Republicans explore options as Jim Jordan comes up short in 2nd speaker vote - PBS NewsHour

House Republicans explore options as Jim Jordan comes up short in 2nd speaker vote.

Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

“Anyone who endorses Jordan and any member who votes for him is affirmatively voting for a coup plotter, an election denier and a foe of American democracy,” the ad said. Jordan quickly emerged as the favorite among conservatives for the GOP's nomination for speaker, and the conference convened Friday morning to select a new candidate. The Ohio Republican faced a late challenge from Georgia Rep. Austin Scott, though ultimately won the backing of a majority of the 221-member conference.

Without a majority, the speaker contest is then forced into a second round of voting. "No person having received a majority of the whole number of votes cast by surname, a speaker has not been elected," McHenry said with a bang of the gavel. Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry, who is temporarily leading the House, declared the chamber in recess after Jordan failed to receive the requisite number of votes to be elected speaker. Apart from Calvert, Steel and others mentioned above, the California GOP lawmakers who supported Jordan on both ballots included Reps. Darrell Issa, Kevin Kiley, Young Kim, Tom McClintock, Jay Obernolte and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Doug LaMalfa, who voted for McCarthy on Tuesday in protest of his removal two weeks ago, backed Jordan on the second ballot. On Wednesday, California’s 12 GOP House members put tribal loyalty above the country’s best interests and heedlessly cast their votes to make Jim Jordan — election denier, Jan. 6 instigator, political pyromaniac — the next House speaker.

In 2018, former wrestlers he coached at Ohio State University accused him of having failed to stop the team's doctor from molesting them and other students. Jordan, who was the university's assistant wrestling coach from 1986 to 1994, has repeatedly said he knew nothing of the abuse until former students began speaking out. WASHINGTON — Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is the only candidate in the race for House speaker, but he's still struggling to win over enough support from rank-and-file Republicans to get elected in a formal floor vote. On Jan. 3, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy became the first candidate in the majority party to lose a bid for the House speakership in 100 years. He won the gavel in the 15th round of voting, making his election the longest since before the Civil War. On Monday night, Spartz released a statement expressing concerns about Jordan’s leadership and if the Ohio Republican would adopt what she called “intimidation” tactics used by McCarthy to gain speaker votes.

Jordan was often animated in his defense of Trump during the president’s first impeachment trial, involving Trump’s 2019 phone call with Ukrainian Pres. During the call Trump threatened to withhold military aid to Ukraine unless Zelensky investigated the business dealings of Joe Biden’s son Hunter. Jordan also supported lawsuits to question the validity of the 2020 U.S. presidential election and refused on January 6, 2021, to certify the election’s results. He was subpoenaed to testify before the House select committee on the January 6 attack but refused to appear.

The now-defunct House Jan. 6 committee said in its final report that Jordan was among several lawmakers who had "materially relevant communications with Donald Trump or others in the White House" who also failed to comply with the panel's subpoenas. An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the political party of a group of representatives who notably voted “no” on new aid for Israel. Democrats have all voted for their leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, in each of the speakership elections.

Some of the California Republicans have been quiet on their voting plans. Opening statements, nominations and procedures could eat up an hour or so — Jordan and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will be nominated, and then the voting begins. He appears to be just short but plans to barrel ahead with an afternoon vote to twist the arms of remaining holdouts with the public scrutiny of a roll call vote.

All the legislative body’s 212 Democrats voted for New York’s Hakeem Jeffries. There has never been a similar situation, so it’s unclear exactly what the scope of McHenry’s power is. It has been widely understood to be extremely narrow so far, limited to the authority to oversee a vote for the next speaker.