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US House Republicans voted in a secret meeting on Friday to end congressman Jim Jordan’s attempt to become Speaker of the lower chamber, plunging Capitol Hill into more uncertainty and delaying Congress’s ability to approve more aid for Israel and Ukraine.
Republicans, who hold a narrow majority in the chamber, will hold another contest on Monday evening to select a candidate for the speakership. Another floor vote on the nominee could happen on Tuesday.
With the House in recess, GOP members will spend the weekend searching for candidates who can unite a Republican House party that has descended into bitter factionalism.
“It is another void,” Dusty Johnson, a Republican congressman told reporters on Capitol Hill immediately after the ballot. “It’s a couple of more days of chaos.” It was now “time for big boys and big girls to stop this nonsense”, he added.
The political vacuum comes as President Joe Biden has asked Congress for $106bn of funding to help Israel and Ukraine — as well as border security and humanitarian assistance. But in the absence of a Speaker, no legislation can move through the House, which will prevent it from being approved.
Friday’s secret vote of the Republican House conference came after Jordan, a close ally of former president Donald Trump, lost a third consecutive vote this week to become Speaker.
The Ohio congressman lost by a margin of 210 to 194, as 25 members of his own party — a bigger number than in the first two votes — sided with House Democrats to vote against Jordan, delivering a decisive blow to his push for his speakership.
In a brief statement after losing the secret vote of his Republican colleagues, Jordan pledged to work as “hard as I can to help” whoever his party nominates next week for the role.
Kevin Hern, a congressman from Oklahoma, on Friday announced he would run for the role. Austin Scott of Georgia and Jack Bergman of Michigan have also thrown their hats in the ring. Tom Emmer, the Republican House whip, and Byron Donalds, a staunch Trump ally from Florida, are also thought likely to run.
Some members have backed the temporary speaker, Patrick McHenry, a Republican from North Carolina and chair of the House financial services committee, for the role. He received six votes from House Republicans on Friday morning.
Republican opponents criticised Jordan for failing to recognise the 2020 election results but also balked at the heavy-handed pressure campaign he launched to gain their support. Some received threats to their personal safety and that of their family members from rightwing activists after opposing his bid.
Jordan lost the secret ballot of House Republicans on Friday 112-86, said some representatives who were involved.
“That tells me that he was not really as popular among our colleagues as he was among a lot of people who have given me lots of advice on the phone here over the last several days,” said Steve Womack, a representative from Arkansas who voted against Jordan in each of the three floor ballots, in an interview with CNN.
The pivotal House Speaker role has been vacant for more than two weeks, since Kevin McCarthy was ousted in early October by a group of eight firebrand conservatives.
“We are in a very bad place right now,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill after Jordan’s defeat. “It’s a problem for the party that we’re in this situation to begin with.”
“It’s not what I hoped for,” Tim Burchett, one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy, told the Financial Times on Friday afternoon. “The swamp took down the most popular grass roots Republican in the country.”
A push by some Republicans to give temporary speaker McHenry additional powers for a few months in order to advance legislation while the party sought a consensus candidate for Speaker failed earlier this week, adding greater uncertainty to the US political scene.
House Democrats have remained united in voting for their own leader, Hakeem Jeffries, in each of the floor votes for the speakership. But Jeffries said his party remained willing to work in a “bipartisan” fashion with Republicans to elect a Speaker.
“Clearly, the votes do not exist in House Republican conference alone to elect a Speaker,” Jeffries said after Jordan’s third defeat. “House Republicans rejected McCarthy, House Republicans rejected [Steve] Scalise, House Republicans rejected Jordan. House Republicans have apparently rejected McHenry.”
He added Democrats would be “serious about partnering with House Republicans in a reasonable way to do the business of the American people”.
But some House Republicans were blunt about the disarray in their party.
Womack said: “People learn by reading. You can learn by observation. And sometimes people learn just by peeing on the electric fence by themselves. That is a situation that is reminiscent of House Republicans right now.”
