Ohio Republican Jim Jordan failed to win enough votes to be elected House speaker on Tuesday, and the chamber plans to reconvene at 11 a.m. Wednesday for another attempt.
Lawmakers took a break Tuesday afternoon after the failed vote, which left Jordan 17 votes short of what he needed to win the gavel. Jordan told reporters in the afternoon they were going to “keep working.” As the GOP nominee for the speaker job, Jordan had worked over the weekend to secure enough support, but momentum sputtered.
The House voted 212 for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.), 200 for Jordan, and 20 for other candidates, including six votes for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.).
Another seven House members voted for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R., La.), who had originally been nominated to succeed McCarthy as speaker but dropped out of contention last week after also falling short on the vote count. Jordan was nominated by the party on Friday.
It took McCarthy 15 ballots to win the speaker’s gavel in January, a role he filled for a volatile nine months until House members voted to oust him in early October. The House has been unable to carry out normal functions without a speaker since then.
Tuesday’s vote left the House in limbo yet again, with no certainty that there could be a quick solution. Some lawmakers in recent days have talked about a bipartisan solution, including perhaps granting Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R., N.C.) with temporary extra powers so legislation could be passed in the near term.
In addition to a Nov. 17 deadline to agree on government funding, or at least extend the temporary funding already in place, Congress faces Biden administration requests for aid for Israel and Ukraine.
Jeffries said in a social media post on Tuesday that House Democrats are committed to a bipartisan path forward to get back to business. He later said “House Democrats are unified and ready to get to work.”
Write to Liz Moyer at [email protected]
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