If at first you don’t succeed, get the guy who succeeded to quit, and then try again.
That’s how Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) won a vote among House Republicans to be the party’s newest nominee for speaker of the House Friday.
But that’s only step one. To become speaker, Jordan will need to win a majority on the floor of the House of Representatives. Since Democrats are certain to unanimously oppose him, that means he’d need 217 of 221 Republicans to clinch the job, if everyone is in attendance.
And he’s still a long, long way from that. After winning the GOP nomination, Jordan asked for another vote among House Republicans about whether they’d support his speaker election on the floor. Only 152 said they would.
If the holdouts are serious, the GOP has no clear path forward.
Jordan is now facing the same problem Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), who narrowly defeated Jordan in the party’s initial speaker nominee vote two days prior, faced. On Thursday night, Scalise threw in the towel, evidently concluding he could not unite the party.
Jordan then eagerly jumped back into the race. In Friday’s vote, he beat back a late challenge from Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA), a little-known lawmaker, 124 to 81 — a margin only slightly better than Scalise’s. But that triumph was undercut by the vote shortly afterward that made clear how far he still had to go.
Still, if Jordan tries to fight it out, the dynamic will be different. He’ll have hardliners on the right — who’ve previously caused trouble on the floor votes — solidly behind him. Holdouts will also face pressure from right-wing media outlets and likely President Trump.
Jordan has long been a leader in the hardline faction of the GOP conference — former speaker John Boehner once called him a “legislative terrorist.” Yet in recent years he’s appeared to be a team player working with leadership; for instance, he backed McCarthy’s debt ceiling deal this year.
But there is resentment among…
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