Jordan allies temper expectations ahead of second round speaker vote

The hardliners supporting Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) for speaker are bracing for a setback on Wednesday as the House convenes for a second round of voting.

Jordan, who won the GOP nomination last week despite misgivings within the GOP establishment, failed to win the gavel on Tuesday after 20 Republicans opposed his candidacy on the House floor.

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He picked up some surprise votes, including a number of Biden-district Republicans whose reelection prospects could be endangered by his hard-right reputation, but the final tally, 200 out of the 217 votes needed, fell below expectations.

Jordan and his allies have seen marginal progress since regrouping to whip support — Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), who voted for ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on the first round, now plans to back Jordan. Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), who missed the first vote to attend a funeral, will also support him.

Yet any progress Jordan has made could be more than offset if a wave of centrists withdraw their support after reluctantly voting for him on the first round. Hard-liners such as Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Andy Ogles (R-TN) are preemptively signaling that outcome even as they pledge to go as many rounds as it takes to elect Jordan speaker.

“I fully expect the D.C. cartel to increase their ‘no’ votes against Jim Jordan tomorrow because they are being hammered by the K Street lobbyists,” Ogles told reporters on Tuesday. “That said, in January, I went 15 rounds in the speaker fight. For Jim, I’ll go 100 rounds.”

The situation is something of a role reversal from January, when almost the same number of holdouts, Roy and Ogles among them, prevented McCarthy from winning the gavel. Except McCarthy, who had built goodwill within his conference through years of campaigning and fundraising on its behalf, was given the space and patience needed to winnow down that opposition and ultimately prevail. Jordan, at one time the biggest antagonist to GOP leadership, does not have that luxury and risks the bottom falling out if his vote tally does not improve, perhaps as soon as the second round, which will be held shortly after the House reconvenes at 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

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Republicans such as Rep. Dave Joyce, a fellow Ohioan who voted for Jordan on the first vote, are already preparing for that possibility and want to give Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), currently the speaker pro tempore, expanded powers for a short time while the conference finds a “consensus” candidate to replace him.

Democrats have expressed openness to the possibility, with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) telling reporters on Tuesday that “informal” talk of such a deal has “accelerated.”

Reese Gorman contributed to this story.