Washington DC, United States: On Tuesday, the US House Representatives rejected the Republican Jim Jordan as the speaker during the first ballot. This signaled more turmoil ahead for the US Representatives.
According to the reports, around 20 of the holdouts refused to vote for Jordan on October 17. Following this, the voting was postponed to the next sitting as the House was at the initial place.
Jordan failed to hold the job role because his Republican colleagues did not want to choose him as a replacement for Kevin McCarthy, who was abruptly removed by the House. It is to be noted that many Republicans believe that he is too extreme to sit in the position of House Speaker.
The US House has entered the second week of struggle since McCarthy was abruptly removed by the hard-liner.
Jim Jordan’s claim
Expectedly, the next voting will be held on Wednesday. In the evening, Jordan said, “We’re going to keep working.” According to the reports by AP, Jordan mentioned that he wasn’t surprised by the results yet expected that he would do better in the next round – which was postponed for the other day.
“We feel confident,” he outlined when asked about the leadership.
Votes distribution
On Tuesday, no candidate was left with the majority as 200 Republicans voted Jordan and 212 favored Hakeem Jefferies, Democratic leader from New York. The remaining 20 decided to vote for someone else.
What’s next
Earlier, it was expected that Jim Jordan would participate in the second vote round on Tuesday. However, he later confirmed that the US House will re-join on Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. ET to decide the next US Speaker.
Reports claim that GOP sources have outlined that if the votes are continued for multiple rounds of ballots, then there is a chance that his opposition could grow.
Trump’s support for Jim Jordan
The 2024 presidential candidate for the Republican party – Donald Trump, has publicly backed Jordan. He stated that he (Jordan) would be a perfect replacement for McCarthy. Trump was against the nomination of Scalise, who later removed his name after being rejected by colleagues and failed to coalesce around him.
While facing a business fraud charge at a courthouse in Manhattan, the former President outlined, “Jim Jordan will be a great speaker.” He was further quoted saying, “I think he’s going to have the votes soon, if not today, over the next day or two.”
Steve Scalise becomes noncommittal about further helping Jordan
Last week, despite winning votes, Scalise dropped out of the race. Following this, Jordan went on to become the nominee. At that time, Scalise assured his full support towards Jordan and also appealed to his supporters to do the same.
But, still, a request by Jordan to give a nomination speech was rejected by Scalise on Tuesday. According to the source, closely associated with the matter, stated that Scalise was noncommittal about extending further support to Jordan.