Rep. Pete Sessions running for U.S. House speaker after backing failed Jim Jordan bid

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Waco, announced Friday that he was throwing his hat in the ring for U.S. speaker after a bid by conservative firebrand Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, ended when he failed to gain enough support in three House votes.

“Let's get the House back to work on behalf of the American people,” Sessions said on X, formerly Twitter.

Sessions, who had supported Jordan, had been in leadership for many years when he represented a Dallas district. He was defeated in 2018, and in 2020 ran for Congress in Central Texas, winning the 17^th Congressional District which now stretches from the Austin suburbs to Nacogdoches.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, also is officially considering a run for speaker, his office confirmed to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal on Friday afternoon.

Three Texas Republicans stood fast against Jordan through the three House roll calls, refused to cave to pressure tactics that included harassing phone calls and, for a lawmaker who had nominated one of the Texans, death threats.

Those three are Reps. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, Jake Ellzey of Midlothian and Tony Gonzales of El Paso, all of whom to varying degrees are centrists.

Reps. Kevin Hern, R-Okla.; Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga.; and Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., also announced Friday their intent to run for speaker.

Texas Republicans vote against Rep. Jim Jordan's bid for U.S. speaker

Granger, in particular, was a surprise anti-Jordan vote given her chairmanship of the powerful House Appropriations Committee as she threw her support to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who had withdrawn from the race.

As committee chair, she helped provide cover for seven other members of her panel, including Gonzales, who also opposed Jordan because they felt his budget-cutting plans would undermine them and the appropriations process.

In Congress since 1997, Granger is a former mayor of Fort Worth who was the first Republican woman from Texas to be elected to the U.S. House.

Gonzales, a member of the appropriations committee, also voted for Scalise.

Ellzey, a former Navy fighter pilot who is actually a roommate of Scalise’s in D.C., voted for fellow Naval Academy flyer Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., who he called, in casting his vote, “my favorite wingman.”

Ellzey flew F-14s and F/A-18 fighters and finished his military career as the “air boss” of the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.

‘De facto shutdown of a branch of Congress’

The House GOP was at an impasse Friday after rejecting Jordan in a secret ballot. Members had already decided they were unwilling to try a short-term speaker by empowering placeholder Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, R-N.C.

“We now have a de facto shutdown of a branch of Congress,” U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters Thursday.

Granger drew fire from conservatives for being one of the Republicans – and the most senior lawmaker – to oppose Jordan. She posted her reasons for opposing him on X.

“Steve Scalise is an honorable man and has earned my vote for Speaker,” she wrote. “This was a vote of conscience and I stayed true to my principles. Intimidation and threats will not change my position.”

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Hays County, one of Jordan’s biggest boosters, declined to talk about specific opponents but said Thursday after the second round of votes defeating Jordan that “I can just tell you that there’s a lot of support for Jim Jordan in Texas. So, I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of that, knowing the voters of Texas.”

Granger was scorched on social media as conservative activists turned up the heat on the 22 “no” Jordan voters in the second roll call (25 voted against him in the third round).

The appropriations committee chair later tweeted her support for empowering McHenry as temporary speaker, but House Republicans declined to do so in a closed-door meeting Thursday.

A House member who made a surprising vote for Granger as speaker in the second round after switching from Jordan said she had been subjected to death threats.

“I voted for Chairwoman Granger because she has demonstrated great leadership this year by bringing forth, and passing, fiscally responsible, single-subject appropriations bills and is a staunch conservative,” said Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa.

“However, since my vote in support of Chairwoman Granger, I have received credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls. The proper authorities have been notified and my office is cooperating fully.” She was clear that the threats would not move her.

“One thing I cannot stomach, or support is a bully,” she said.

In the third round of votes Friday Miller-Meeks changed her vote for McHenry.

Ellzey and Gonzales did not comment on their votes or on any pushback though in a post on X, the similarly named U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat from Brownsville, said that his office had been deluged with calls from people complaining about the Republican Gonzales’ vote. The Texas Democrat’s office redirected the calls which staffers said were not threatening.

All the GOP members who represent Central Texas voted for Jordan: Roy, John Carter of Round Rock, Michael McCaul of Austin, Pete Sessions of Waco, Michael Cloud of Victoria and Roger Williams of Willow Park.

The two Democrats who represent Austin — U.S. Reps. Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett — joined all Democrats in voting for House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: House speaker candidates: Pete Sessions court votes