Stalled voting on Jim Jordan's bid to become House speaker frustrates Wisconsin Republicans

WASHINGTON – Republicans delayed further voting Tuesday evening after Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan failed to win enough support to be elected speaker on the House floor — prolonging a two-week period of paralysis in which the leaderless chamber has been unable to act in the face of foreign wars and a looming government shutdown.

Jordan’s first failed bid to win the speakership due to opposition from within his party frustrated some Wisconsin Republicans, all of whom have lined up behind the speaker-designee and called for their conference to unite behind one leader.

"At a period of time when we should be working on bringing inflation down by addressing spending, unleashing American energy, securing the border, supporting our ally in Israel, we find ourselves dealing with this challenge,” Republican Rep. Bryan Steil told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

"It's disappointing that we're here,” Steil said after Jordan fell short of winning the gavel Tuesday, later adding: “It is broadly frustrating with the challenges that we’re facing that this is what’s consuming our time.”

And Rep. Derrick Van Orden said he remained “frustrated with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who continue to hold our government in gridlock."

Jim Jordan comes up short of becoming Speaker of the House, next vote not until Wednesday

The comments came shortly after 20 Republicans voted against electing Jordan speaker, keeping him 17 votes short of victory and leaving the GOP conference fractured with no clear solution in sight. The House adjourned Tuesday evening without attempting another vote. The next round of voting is scheduled for Wednesday.

Throughout the now two weeks of dysfunction, Wisconsin’s Republicans largely kept in line with the majority of their conference.

All six of the state's Republicans pledged their support to Jordan after he was nominated Friday by 124 members in a GOP secret ballot vote. Just two days earlier, most of the delegation threw their support behind Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise after he defeated Jordan in a similar vote to become speaker-designee. Scalise withdrew a day later, when it became clear he would not get the 217 votes he needed to win the job.

“We all ought to fall in line. Everybody should respect that vote,” Rep. Glenn Grothman, who like Reps. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Tiffany and Van Orden backed Jordan from the start, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after Scalise was initially nominated last week.

Steil and Rep. Mike Gallagher, who did not disclose their closed-door votes, both indicated they’d support the conference nominee — now Jordan. Both men hold committee chairmanships that are directly appointed by the speaker.

Jim Jordan continues to face opposition within Republican conference

But that push for unity grew dimmer when Jordan faced significant opposition from within his own conference Tuesday afternoon.

“Could go either way,” Steil responded when asked by reporters after the first vote whether Jordan would rally or shed support moving forward.

“To me, the differences between any one person who'd be speaker pales in comparison to the differences between our conference and where the Biden administration is trying to take this country, which is why I believe we’re stronger if we unite and address all the challenges that we face,” Steil said.

“As you saw on the floor, not all my colleagues share that view,” he said. “But hopefully we’ll be able to come together and unite behind a speaker.”

Democrats are voting for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, call Jim Jordan an insurrectionist for loyalty to Donald Trump

Democrats, meanwhile, remained united behind Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Before the vote, they attacked Jordan for his loyalty to former President Donald Trump and connections to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Some called Jordan an insurrectionist on the House floor.

“He’s not here to make laws. He’s here, primarily, because he disagrees with the idea of government,” Milwaukee Rep. Gwen Moore told the Journal Sentinel after Jordan’s first failed vote. “I think it’s very disturbing that people who have held themselves out to be reasonable and moderate would vote for him.”

The tumult over who would lead Congress’ lower chamber began Oct. 3, when a band of eight Republicans successfully moved to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the speakership. All six Wisconsin Republicans backed McCarthy at the time.

McCarthy’s removal has left the House leaderless and paralyzed amid ongoing wars in Israel and Ukraine. Congress also faces a Nov. 17 deadline to pass government funding legislation before a short-term spending patch expires, resulting in a government shutdown.

Republicans initially nominated Steve Scalise but he eventually withdrew

In the two weeks since the ouster, Republicans have struggled to band together.

The party initially nominated Scalise, the House’s No. 2 Republican, to ascend to the speakership, but he faced sustained opposition from some in his conference and eventually withdrew.

Scalise’s withdrawal re-opened the door for Jordan, who like his Louisiana counterpart has been blocked by detractors. He spent the last five days attempting to win over holdouts in a series of conference meetings and one-on-one discussions.

Just how Jordan, a co-founder of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, would operate as speaker remains to be seen.

As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jordan led the effort to investigate the so-called weaponization of the federal government against conservatives and was among the lawmakers spearheading the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

Democrats, as well as some Republicans, have been quick to point out Jordan's efforts to help Trump overturn the 2020 election. He voted against certifying Biden's victory following the insurrection on Jan. 6 and defied a subpoena from the select committee investigating the attack.

“MAGA extremist Jim Jordan led the fight to overturn the 2020 election and now wants to double down on a radical, Trump-backed agenda,” Moore wrote on the platform X Tuesday morning. “He’s unfit to lead the People’s House.”

Will Jim Jordan eventually get the 217 votes that he needs to become the new Speaker of the House?

Liz Cheney, former vice chair of the select committee investigating the attack who lost her re-election primary race following her opposition to Trump, wrote last week: "Jim Jordan was involved in Trump's conspiracy to steal the election and seize power; he urged that (then-Vice President Mike) Pence refuse to count lawful electoral votes. If Rs nominate Jordan to be Speaker, they will be abandoning the Constitution. They’ll lose the House majority and they’ll deserve to."

Asked last week if Jordan is a leader Democrats can work with, former Democratic majority leader Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland told a small group of reporters: "There's nothing to indicate that the answer to that is yes."

With the House adjourned Tuesday without a leader and with the Republican conference still divided, it remained unclear whether Jordan would be able to get the necessary 217 votes when members reconvene Wednesday,

Reid Ribble, a former Wisconsin congressman who resigned from the Freedom Caucus in 2015 over the group’s disruption of a speaker race, said this week that Republicans are looking at the current speaker race in the wrong way.

A House speaker, Ribble said in an interview, “ought to be the speaker for the entire House” while the majority and minority leaders should be the more partisan party heads.

“The speaker ought to be calling balls and strikes,” Ribble said, adding that he doesn’t think Jordan is the “right leader for this moment” to be able to work with Democrats in the Senate and White House and set reasonable party expectations.

He called the Freedom Caucus’ 2015 involvement in speaker discussions “really the earliest indications of the populist movement” sweeping across the country.

“I find it fascinating that the big-time populists like Donald Trump and Jim Jordan are the ones seeking leadership positions,” Ribble said. “They’re going to be the guy, eventually, that people will deride. Because they will deride them all.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Stalled Jim Jordan speaker vote frustrates Wisconsin Republicans