Jordan Unable To Win Election For House Speaker, Democrats See An Opening

After a second round of voting in the election for U.S. House speaker, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was unable to achieve the 217 votes needed to take over the role recently vacated by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), leaving leftist House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) inching closer to usurping the speakership from Republicans.

Jordan received only 199 votes, with 22 Republicans voting against him, causing an uproar of frustration on social media. Two Republican holdouts came around and voted for Jordan — Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) and Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) — but four Republicans took their place and left Jordan’s camp.

One troubling development for conservatives is the number of votes House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was able to collect, threatening a potential liberal takeover of leadership in the Republican-led House of Representatives. Talks of a potential “compromise” have been growing louder in Congress as the legislative body has continued on with the leadership position vacant.

Asked if he had heard anything from Republicans looking to work on a bipartisan compromise for House speaker, Jeffries replied that, “There have been ongoing informal conversations that have been undertaken over the last few days. I think there is a possibility those can accelerate now that Jim Jordan clearly does not have the votes to be speaker.”

Republican and Democratic voters alike are concerned about the inability of Republicans in the House to choose a leader after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) successfully moved to oust former House Speaker McCarthy from the speakership for failing to deliver on promises made to the conservative wing of his party.

It would only take five Republicans to make House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries a reality. And, given Republicans’ track record of conceding to demands from leftist Democrats, it is a reality that is not so far out of the realm of possibilities.

As Jordan’s door to the speakership appears to have closed — though McCarthy famously took a lot more than two rounds of voting to win the gavel — and pressure mounts on conservatives to choose and elect a suitable speaker, it is concerning to think that only five weak Republicans would be needed to turn over leadership of the House to extremist Democrats, just when a check to President Biden and his party’s legislative usurpations are needed the most.