Politics from a fresh perspective

Jim Jordan tapped for GOP Speaker nominee

A war in Israel, a government shutdown looming and the US House at an impasse – yet the Congressional GOP is still not a step closer to filling the vacant Speaker seat, despite Jordan’s nomination yesterday.

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2–3 minutes

A war in Israel, a government shutdown looming and the US House at an impasse – yet the Congressional GOP is still not a step closer to filling the vacant Speaker seat, despite Jordan’s nomination yesterday.

Key points

  • Steve Scalise (R-LA) drops out the Speakership race, citing a lack of votes.
  • Trump-backed representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) is selected as Scalise’s replacement.
  • House Democrats accuse GOP of “chaos, dysfunction and extremism”.

Republican hardliners have rallied around Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, after the previously nominated Steve Scalise dropped out of the race on Thursday. However despite endorsements from both former President Trump and former Speaker McCarthy, Jordan is far from a unifying figure within the GOP and has no obvious path to the 217 votes needed to win the speakership.

Moderates within the party will be especially wary of Jordan, who is a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, and a strong Trump ally. Jordan also cannot expect any help from the House Democrats, who have condemned him as an “extremist extraordinaire”.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has continued to call for a “bipartisan path forward”, alluding to a possible coalition between moderate Republicans and Democrats that would likely see one of the former made Speaker with Democrat backing. This scenario is becoming more and more likely as the GOP continues to reach no consensus on a Speaker nominee.

This chaotic series of events was started on October 3rd, when Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz began a motion to vacate the Speakership of Kevin McCarthy, who has since declined to stand again. Gaetz had been a thorn in the side of House leadership for much of 2023 and was the primary reason for the unprecedented fifteen ballots that it took to make McCarthy speaker earlier this year.

Rep. Gaetz is a strong supporter of Jim Jordan and remains confident that Jordan will win the Speakership vote outright next Tuesday, stating on a CNN segment that “[Jordan] seems to be gaining a good amount of momentum”. However this a rather optimistic take as only six Republicans need to vote against Jordan for him to fail to get a majority.

The images used in this article are by G Skidmor, and licensed under the CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED licence.

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