After he failed for a third time to muster the votes needed on the House floor, House Republicans voted in a secret ballot Friday to ditch Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) as their nominee for Speaker, setting off a scramble among Republicans to find their candidate for the House GOP’s top job.
Jordan tried and failed for days to break through the opposition, but detractors dug in their heels, ultimately tanking his speakership dreams and thrusting the House into a third week without a leader.
The speakership has now been vacant for 17 days since eight Republican hardliners moved to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), kicking off an unprecedented power vacuum that has highlighted deep divisions within the Republican caucus, which ultimately needs to act in near unanimity to elect a new leader.
Jordan spent a week as Speaker nominee, working against the tides of bitter Republican infighting that eventually swallowed his candidacy, landing lawmakers back at square one.
Far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), the chief architect of the crisis that led to McCarthy’s ouster, decried the outcome of the secret vote on Friday.
“The most popular Republican in Congress was just knifed in an an anonymous vote in a secret closed door meeting in the basement of the Capitol,” he fumed in a post to X. “This is the Swamp at work.”
McCarthy, in turn, told reporters that Gaetz and Co. did “insurmountable” damage to the country and that he was “concerned about where we go from here.”
Republicans were expected to break for the weekend without a new nominee, waiting until Monday to bring up the issue again. Several have already put their names forward to take Jordan’s place.
Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) announced his candidacy in a post on X, writing, “We need a different type of leader who has a proven track record of success.”
Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI) issued a statement announcing his candidacy. “My hat is in the ring, and I feel confident I can win the votes where others could not,” he wrote. “I have no special interests to serve; I’m only in this to do what’s best for our Nation and to steady the ship for the 118th Congress.”
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), the number three House Republican, told colleagues that he intended to seek the top job, according to multiple reports.
And Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA), who launched a longshot bid against Jordan last week—an effort that ultimately lasted just a few hours—said he will rejoin the fray.
“If we are going to be the majority we need to act like the majority, and that means we have to do the right things the right way,” Scott wrote on X.
This breaking story will be updated.
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