Rep. Jim Jordan has urged House Republicans to “come together” and support his House Speaker bid after the Ohio congressman failed to win enough votes from his own party to get elected to the role.
A total of 20 Republicans rejected Jordan’s nomination and voted for another candidate in the first ballot on Tuesday, with another round of voting scheduled on Wednesday.
Jordan, who is endorsed for speaker by former President Donald Trump, must now persuade almost all of the GOP defectors to back him in order to achieve a 217 majority on the House floor, with Democrats expected to continue unanimously voting for their leader in the chamber, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.
However, Republicans who did not support Jordan in Tuesday’s vote have already come out and said the Ohio congressman’s strongarm tactics backfired and put off some from backing the hardline lawmaker.
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In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Jordan has called for the GOP to unite and back his House speaker bid so the lower chamber can work on vital domestic and foreign issues.
“We must stop attacking each other and come together. There’s too much at stake,” Jordan wrote. “Let’s get back to working on the crisis at the southern border, inflation, and helping Israel.”
Jordan’s office has been contacted for further comment via email.
Some of the 20 House Republicans who did not support Jordan on Tuesday said their vote was merely a protest, and they plan to back Jordan in follow-up ballots, reported the Associated Press.
It is unclear how many others may continue to hold out on not supporting the GOP’s nominated candidate, with Jordan unable to lose the support of any more than four Republican lawmakers due to the party’s thin 221-212 majority in the House.
Florida Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez, who voted for Kevin McCarthy to return to the role he was historically ousted from, said Jordan’s tactics in trying to pressure House Republicans to vote for him likely cost him crucial support.
“His tactics certainly didn’t work on me,” Gimenez said. “Actually, I became more cemented in my position…He should have probably left me to my own devices to get there. Now by being threatened, by being pushed—I’m Hispanic. I’m a Cuban. You just don’t do that to us.”
Fellow Florida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who voted for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the previous GOP candidate who dropped out of the race as it became clear he would not get the needed support from his own party, expressed a similar view about Jordan’s tactics.
“The one thing that will never work with me—if you try to pressure me, if you try to threaten me, then I shut off,” Diaz-Balart said.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Florida congressman Byron Donalds, who voted for Jordan, said the pressure campaign mounted by other Republicans may have cost Jordan the House speaker first-round vote.
“I talked to a couple of members where they felt that was just not what they needed. I don’t think that’s what we should be doing right now,” Donalds said. “I think some of the pressure campaigns have backfired, they have not worked.”
House Minority Leader Jeffries, who got more votes than Jordan in Tuesday’s ballot [212-200] due to the Republican defectors, said the GOP “are unable to function right now,” and called for talks between Democrats and Republicans on alternative plans.
“My hope—now that it’s clear Jim Jordan lacks the votes to be speaker—[is] that those conversations will accelerate this evening,” Jeffries said.
One such plan is granting expanded powers to Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry, who was chosen by McCarthy as a temporary replacement until the House Speaker position is filled, to allow the lower chamber to govern.