Jordan Wearing Down Weary Dissenters Ahead of Tuesday Speaker Vote

Rep. Jim Jordan, who spent the weekend pressuring GOP moderates and conservatives alike to support him for House speaker, is determined to force a floor vote on Tuesday despite lacking votes, sources tell The Messenger.

Jordan’s plan — if he follows through with it — would bring lawmakers to the floor even as it's unclear, and unlikely, he would have the votes to become speaker. The latest plan, according to a source familiar with Jordan’s thinking, is to force lawmakers to vote on the record, on the floor, in front of cameras. 

He picked up the public endorsement Monday morning from Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, who had been a holdout.

“Jim Jordan and I have had two cordial, thoughtful, and productive conversations over the past two days," Rogers said in a statement. "We agreed on the need for Congress to pass a strong [national defense authorization bill], appropriations to fund our government's vital functions, and other important legislation like the Farm Bill.  As a result, I have decided to support Jim Jordan for Speaker of the House on the floor." 

In a secret ballot vote last week, 152 Republicans said they would vote for Jordan on the floor, while 55 others said they would not. Jordan needs 217 votes to win on the floor of the House, which remains paralyzed amid GOP dysfunction.

Wrestling votes from holdouts who support ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., — who won the GOP nomination for speaker last Wednesday, but was forced to drop out after Jordan didn’t deliver his supporters — may do more harm than good if the tactics are too aggressive, loyalists warn.

“As someone who wants Jim Jordan, the dumbest thing you can do is to continue pissing off those people and entrench them,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, adding “They’re going to whip up Twitter against the people who are against Jordan.”

The Texas Republican warned that the “high pressure campaign” being waged on behalf of the House Judiciary Committee chairman could very well backfire.

Jordan, however, has been taking a hard-nosed approach to his fight for the speakership. He and his supporters hope that by forcing lawmakers to vote in public on the House floor, the holdouts — those opposed or uncommitted — will be framed as the ones who are keeping the House from getting back to work as Congress barrels toward a mid-November government funding deadline, with the Israel-Gaza war growing more urgent.

Any speaker candidate must reach the 217 vote threshold to become the No. 1 leader of the chamber. While Jordan may be able to peel away some of the 55 who voted against him behind closed doors, his detractors remain skeptical he’ll ever get the votes needed to become speaker. Many of those holdouts are moderates who feel uncomfortable backing a conservative bomb thrower for speaker.

“He has more no votes than Scalise. And Scalise dropped out,” Rep. Carlos Giménez, R-Fla., told The Messenger on Friday. “I would be surprised if we went to the floor. Now if he convinces 50 [plus] people, then he has done a hell of a job.”

But the source with knowledge of Jordan’s plans told The Messenger that the Ohio Republican has tapped both moderates and conservatives to help him whip votes. The lawmakers helping corral votes for Jordan include Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Jim Banks, R-Ind., Russell Fry, R-S.C., Mike Carey, R-Ohio, Tom Tiffany, R-Wisc., and Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wisc.

If Republicans cannot settle on a member of their own party who can win 217 votes, they have an alternative solution: choosing a bipartisan coalition to govern the  GOP-controlled House.

Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., told The Messenger last week that conversations about a bipartisan compromise for leadership were “quietly happening.”  Kuster, who chairs the New Democrat Coalition, a group of nearly 100 moderate Democrats, said the compromise wouldn’t necessarily mean the Republican-controlled House winds up with a Democratic speaker — instead, she said, it could be a GOP speaker with more power handed to Democrats, or vice versa.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries teased the idea himself on Sunday. "We have made clear publicly and privately that we are ready, willing and able to enter into a bipartisan governing coalition," the Democratic leader said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The House has been without a speaker for 13 days, since Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the post by a band of hardliners who never fully trusted the California Republican, but dropped all pretenses after he welcomed the support of Democrats to approve a bill to keep government agencies open, and services to everyday Americans flowing. Two days after averting the shutdown at the last minute, McCarthy was deposed.

McCarthy has thrown his support behind Jordan's bid to succeed him.

Speakerless, the nonfunctioning House has crippled the entire legislative branch of government. The House has been unable to take up any legislation — including bills to fund the government, against a new shutdown deadline of Nov. 17, or to aid war-torn Ukraine and Israel.

One thing Jordan has going for him is the exhaustion felt by many in his party, including moderates, who say they're ready to elect any speaker so the House can resume business. Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., one of 18 Republicans who represents a district carried by President Joe Biden in 2020, said Friday his constituents want a functioning Congress. 

“Joe Biden does not own [my] district. They don’t give a sh– who the speaker of the House is,” he said. “They care if we are functioning and delivering for them.”