Jim Jordan Loses on Second Speaker Ballot

Spencer Brown | October 18, 2023 1:30 PM

After Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) came up 17 votes short of the magic number needed to secure the speaker's gavel on Tuesday, the House of Representatives gathered again on Wednesday for its second attempt at electing a speaker since Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted earlier in October.

At 12:11 PM, the House began a manual roll call vote on election of Speaker.
— House Press Gallery (@HouseDailyPress) October 18, 2023

Again, Jordan was nominated by Republicans and Hakeem Jeffries was nominated by Democrats, and again the clerk proceeded through a roll-call vote of all 433 members who were present in the chamber. Again, Jordan came up short.

The final tally in round two was even worse for Jordan than the first round: there were 199 votes for Jordan, 212 for Jeffries, and 22 votes for other individuals after some who voted for Jordan on Tuesday switched their vote to someone else in the second round, such as Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) and Drew Ferguson (R-GA).

The Chair announced the results:@RepJeffries– 212@Jim_Jordan– 199@SteveScalise- 7@SpeakerMcCarthy- 5@LeeMZeldin- 3@RepMikeGarcia – 1
Miller (MI) – 1 @GOPMajorityWhip - 1@SpeakerBoehner - 1@RepWesterman – 1@RepDonaldsPress – 1@RepKayGranger – 1
With no majority cast in…
— House Press Gallery (@HouseDailyPress) October 18, 2023

These are the House Republicans who voted for someone other than Jordan:

Rep. Bacon voted for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy
Rep. Buchanan voted for Rep. Byron Donalds
Rep. Buck voted for Rep. Tom Emmer
Rep. Chavez-DeRemer voted for McCarthy
Rep. D’Esposito voted for former Rep. Lee Zeldin
Rep. Diaz Balart voted for Rep. Steve Scalise
Rep. Ellzey voted for Rep. Mike Garcia
Rep. Ferguson voted for Scalise
Rep. Garbarino voted for Zeldin
Rep. Gimenez voted for McCarthy
Rep. Gonzalez voted for Scalise
Rep. Granger voted for Scalise
Rep. James voted for former Rep. Candice Miller
Rep. Kelly voted for former Speaker John Boehner
Rep. Kiggans voted for McCarthy
Rep. LaLota voted for Zeldin
Rep. Lawler voted for McCarthy
Rep. Miller-Meeks voted for Rep. Kay Granger
Rep. Rutherford voted for Scalise
Rep. Simpson voted for Scalise
Rep. Stauber voted for Rep. Bruce Westerman
Rep. Womack voted for Scalise

With Jordan losing ground in the second round, House Republicans seemingly need to either start wheeling and dealing to figure out what it will take to get the holdouts to support Jordan — but cautiously, as one of the concessions McCarthy made during his successful speaker bid regarding the threshold to bring a motion to vacate the chair ended up being his downfall — or regroup around another leader who can win the support necessary to be elected speaker.