House Again Fails to Elect a Speaker

USA – Voice of America

The third time was not a charm for Ohio Republican Jim Jordan, hoping to become U.S. House speaker.

Twenty-five Republicans voted Friday morning against the arch-conservative congressman, while all Democrats cast voice votes for their party’s leader in the chamber, Hakeem Jeffries of New York — meaning no candidate hit the threshold of 217 votes needed to be elected speaker.

Three more Republicans voted against Jordan in the third round than in the second.

Later in the day, Republicans dropped Jordan as their speaker nominee in a private meeting. Majority Leader Steve Scalise said party members would go home “and start over” on Monday in their search for a candidate.

The House has been paralyzed for more than two weeks since eight Republicans joined with Democrats in a historic vote to remove California Republican Kevin McCarthy as speaker.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday was dispatching to Congress a $106 billion foreign aid request, primarily composed of money to aid Israel and Ukraine in their wars against Hamas and Russia, respectively.

Until the House elects a speaker, the body will not be able to vote on any spending bills. The House faces a November 17 deadline when funding for the entire federal government runs out. If no new funding measure is approved, millions of members of the U.S. military and federal workers will not be paid.

Jordan was a favorite of the Republicans who are closely allied with former President Donald Trump, the party’s leading candidate in next year’s race for the presidency. Other Republicans rebelled against Jordan’s strongarm tactics to get elected speaker, and many expressed that he was not suited to lead, as during his 16 years in Congress he has never sponsored a bill that became law.

“Jim Jordan is an effective legislator,” McCarthy said in his third-round nomination speech in support of his fellow Republican. That remark prompted laughter and jeering from the Democrats, who have not seen a single member of their caucus vote for anyone else except Jeffries in the numerous rounds this year to elect speakers.

Prior to the third round, Republican Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida told reporters Jordan was not going to gather enough votes to be victorious, no matter how many rounds of voting members had to endure.

“There is a time when you have to put country above ego and self,” he said. “It gets to a point where this now becomes just an egofest.”

Jeffries, at a news conference earlier Friday, said Jordan was a “clear and present danger to our democracy” because the Republican attempted to overturn the 2020 election on behalf of Trump.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.