WASHINGTON (CN) — As Congress begins a third week without a House speaker, Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan is hoping to end a Republican stalemate and lock down the top job — but it remains to be seen whether he can muster enough support to lead the lower chamber.
The House has been effectively paralyzed since the beginning of the month when a cadre of ultra-conservative GOP lawmakers ousted then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, citing a laundry list of grievances including his decision to negotiate a short-term budget patch with Democrats that averted a government shutdown.
Since McCarthy’s removal, the Republican caucus has struggled to rally around a possible replacement. A GOP speaker would need the support of at least 217 of the caucus’s 221-seat House majority.
Republicans’ best shot at achieving such an outcome appears to be Jordan, who last week replaced Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise as the party’s nominee for House speaker. Even so, it’s unclear whether Jordan can succeed where his colleague failed and round up the votes to clinch the speakership.
With a full chamber vote possible as early as Tuesday, the Ohio congressman is hard at work scraping together support. In a letter to his Republican colleagues dated Monday, Jordan made a plea for unity.
“As Republicans, we are blessed to have an energetic conference comprised of members with varied backgrounds, experiences, and skills,” Jordan wrote. “We may not always agree on every issue or every bill, and that’s all right.”
The Ohio Republican also acknowledged what he said were “frustrations” from his fellow caucus members about “the treatment of Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise and the events of the past month.”
After McCarthy’s ouster, the GOP nominated Scalise, the House majority leader, as his replacement. The Louisiana congressman’s ascent to the speakership was short-lived, though, and he backed away from the job after only a couple of days after Republican support collapsed.
Jordan, hoping to pull lawmakers who had been skeptical of Scalise under his tent, told his colleagues that if made speaker he would “make sure there are more Republican voices involved in our major decisions,” adding that he would aim to expand the powers of the House’s GOP-led committees to “pass responsible legislation to fund our government and support our military.”
Meanwhile, some of Jordan’s top supporters went to bat for the speaker candidate. In an open letter to Monday, Tennessee Representative Andy Ogles urged voters to “make your voice known.”
“[T]here is a candidate for Speaker that will fight vigorously — every day — in service of this extraordinary country,” Ogles said. “That candidate is Congressman Jim Jordan, and he currently commands majority support in the Republican conference.”
Although Jordan’s path to the speakership remains somewhat rocky, the lawmaker has flipped some major holdouts over the weekend.
Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers, who had been a Jordan holdout, wrote in a Monday post on X, formerly Twitter, that he would support the Ohio lawmaker after a series of discussions over the last several days.
“Since I was first elected to the House, I have always been a team player and supported what the majority of the Republican Conference agrees to,” Rogers wrote. “Together, our Republican majority will be stronger to fight Joe Biden’s reckless agenda for America.”
California Congressman Ken Calvert, head of the House’s defense appropriations panel, also announced Monday that he would back Jordan’s ascent, writing that he had spoken to the would-be speaker about “how we must get the House back on a path to achieve our national security and appropriations goals.”
The historic vote to oust former speaker McCarthy earlier this month has left a gaping power vacuum in the House as Congress faces down the possibility of yet another government spending crisis. McCarthy’s last act as speaker — a stopgap budget that funded the government for just 45 days — is set to expire around Nov. 15. Lawmakers will need to pass a package of budget bills or find another short-term patch before that date, but it can do neither while the House is missing a speaker.
The lower chamber’s leadership crisis is also hampering Congress’ ability to respond to the Hamas-led incursion of Israel that began last week. The House cannot take on any floor business, such as an aid package for Jerusalem, until a new speaker is in place.
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