Rep. Jim Jordan says he’s not giving up hope of becoming U.S. House speaker

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who failed in a crucial second ballot yesterday to become Speaker of the House, talks to reporters as he leaves a closed meeting of the Republican Conference, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told GOP colleagues Thursday he was still running for the House gavel, leaving Republicans few viable options after his backers resisted a plan to expand the temporary speaker’s powers to re-open the House.

Jordan delivered the message at a closed-door meeting at the Capitol as the Republican majority considered an extraordinary plan to give the interim speaker pro tempore more powers for the next several months to bring the House back into session and conduct crucial business, according to Republicans familiar with the private meeting who insisted on anonymity to discuss it.

But neither option seemed immediately workable. GOP moderates who have twice rejected Jordan are unwilling to support him now, especially after some report harassing pressures and even death threats from his supporters. At the same time, Jordan’s hard-right allies are refusing to allow a temporary speaker to gain more power.

The prolonged stalemate risks keeping the House shut down for the foreseeable future after the unprecedented ouster of Kevin McCarthy as speaker,

“I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race,” said Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chairman and founder of the House Freedom Caucus.

Thursday’s meeting grew heated at times with Republican factions blaming one another for sending their majority into chaos, lawmakers said.

When Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a chief architect of the ouster of the speaker two weeks ago, rose to speak, McCarthy told him it was not his turn.

“We’re shaking up Washington, D.C. We’re breaking the fever. And, you know what, it’s messy,” Gaetz said later.

With Jordan refusing to concede and his detractors rejecting the idea of installing McHenry as a temporary speaker, there are few options left. The House convened briefly at midday Thursday, but no action was taken, the schedule ahead uncertain.

On Wednesday, Jordan, failed in a crucial second ballot, opposed by 22 Republicans, two more than he lost in first-round voting the day before.

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