House remains leaderless as Idaho's Mike Simpson helps block Jim Jordan's speaker bid

Oct. 17—WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives remained leaderless on Tuesday as a group of GOP moderates turned the tables on the hardliners who ousted the former speaker two weeks earlier, blocking Rep. Jim Jordan's bid to lead House Republicans.

Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho Falls was one of 20 Republicans who voted for someone other than Jordan, a firebrand once labeled a "legislative terrorist" by former Speaker John Boehner, a fellow Republican from Ohio whose political career Jordan helped end as a founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. Every other GOP lawmaker from the Northwest backed Jordan, whose supporters flooded congressional offices with calls after he was endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Simpson declined to explain his position to reporters after the vote, but in a statement, the veteran lawmaker took aim at the hardline Republicans who unseated former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Oct. 3 and derailed a vote on Rep. Steve Scalise despite the party choosing the Louisianan as their candidate for speaker a week later.

"Two weeks ago, we watched eight so-called 'Republicans' work with Democrats to oust Speaker McCarthy," Simpson said, referring to Democrats' universal opposition to McCarthy. "The eight had no plan after their destructive vote — instead, their actions have stalled our critical appropriations process, paralyzed the House's legislative business, and left Republicans looking like we are incapable of governing."

Simpson, who had declined to say how he voted in the closed-door meeting on Oct. 11, said he voted for Scalise on Tuesday "because he rightfully earned our conference nomination and deserved the opportunity to be considered before the full House of Representatives."

The other Republicans who opposed Jordan cast symbolic votes for Scalise, McCarthy and several other GOP lawmakers — including a former representative — who weren't officially in the running.

Those who voted for Jordan included Rep. Russ Fulcher, who represents North Idaho, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Spokane and Rep. Dan Newhouse of Sunnyside. Newhouse, who backed Jordan despite not applauding the Ohioan's nomination, explained his vote in a statement that cited the urgency of electing a speaker to end the House's paralysis.

"The House is now weeks into a rift that is dividing our Conference and preventing us from acting on the critical issues our country, and the world, face today," Newhouse said. "Israel is under attack, our border remains weakened, and a looming government shutdown makes imperative the need to perform our Constitutional duty to fund the government and its people. It's time to get back to work."

Even without a full-throated endorsement of Jordan, Newhouse's vote drew sharp criticism from his Democratic opponent in the 2022 election, Doug White, who called it a "gutless vote for chaos leadership" and "a disgusting reminder of how a far-right minority forces their ideology on folks who do not share their values."

"This extremist group gets its strength in rural areas, like ours, where they have been successful in taking over local governments, school boards and other institutions that make critical decisions, policies and laws that truly dictate our lives," White said in a statement, calling Jordan "a corrupt self-serving bully."

Both Simpson and Newhouse are members of the Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for negotiating with the Democratic-majority Senate to pass spending bills that fund the government. McCarthy was ousted after defying GOP hardliners to let a short-term spending bill pass to avert a government shutdown, but that funding runs out Nov. 17, and Jordan's critics worry he would force a shutdown in an effort to extract concessions from Democrats.

Fulcher, a Freedom Caucus member, declined to criticize Simpson in a brief interview after the vote, saying that he hadn't talked with his fellow Idahoan about the speaker vote.

"Everybody has their own opinions, everybody's got their own position, and they have the right to do whatever they choose to do," Fulcher said. "There's obviously a concern there, and so they'll have to work that out."

A spokesman for McMorris Rodgers said the Spokane Republican backed Jordan in hopes of ending the impasse.

"As she's said all along, Cathy believes it's time for Republicans to unite behind the conference's nominee and get back to work for the American people," spokesman Kyle VonEnde said in a statement. "She is eager to continue working with her colleagues to make sure that happens."

The House recessed on Tuesday with another vote planned for Wednesday morning. With every member of the House present and voting, Republicans need to get 217 of their 221 members behind a candidate, a number Jordan didn't appear near as the day came to a close.

If the GOP can't unite behind a candidate, moderate Democrats could theoretically help a more pragmatic Republican become speaker. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez, a southwest Washington Democrat who co-chairs the centrist Blue Dog Coalition, said she had been texting Republicans in an effort to "get the train back on the rails."

"We have been dying for a functioning body. I would love to see them come to us and work on a deal," she said in an interview after the vote. "There are Republicans I respect and would gladly support, but we have to have a deal that brings normalcy back together. It has to be moderates coming together and saying, 'We're done with the shenanigans.' "

After a fortnight of paralysis in the House, some Democrats have mixed feelings about what it means.

Rep. Suzan DelBene of Medina, Washington, who leads House Democrats' campaign arm, said that while the "chaos and dysfunction" in the chamber sends a clear message to voters about the state of the Republican Party, it also blocks important legislating that can't wait.

"They've been focused on extreme policies where they only have support from their caucus," DelBene said in an interview. "If you care about the country, you should be here to govern and you should be willing to work across the aisle, because that's the only way we'll get things done."

The House is scheduled to vote again to elect a speaker on Wednesday morning.

Orion Donovan Smith's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.