The U.S. House held a third round of voting to elect a Speaker Friday morning but got no closer to doing so.
Official vote total as Jordan loses 3rd consecutive roll call vote: Jordan OH 4: 194⁰Jeffries NY 08: 210
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 20, 2023
McHenry NC 10: 6
Donalds FL 19: 2
Emmer MN 06: 1
Lee Zeldin: 4
Scalise LA 01: 8
Garcia CA 27: 1
McCarthy CA 20: 2⁰Westerman AR 04: 1
With a final vote total of 194, GOP nominee Jim Jordan (R-OH) lost ground, garnering five fewer votes than he had in the second round. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) once again received all 210 Democrat votes. Others who received GOP votes in Friday morning’s round include previous nominee Steve Scalise (R-LA), who garnered eight votes, and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who netted six.
Though he appears to be losing ground, Jordan has vowed to continue fighting for the speakership. As RedState’s Jennifer Van Laar notes, Jordan took his case to the American people Friday ahead of the vote:
Jordan started with a story about visiting the Wright Brothers’ home in Ohio and shared that the last part of that tour was two pictures. One was of the first flight in Kitty Hawk, NC, in 1903, where the airplane barely got off the ground – but it flew. The second picture was of Chuck Yeager after he broke the sound barrier in a jet 44 years later. Jordan added that 22 years later the United States put a man on the moon, the point being that the ingenuity and resolve of Americans are unmatched in the history of the world. In my mind (and related to this topic), a secondary point is that massive paradigm shifts start small and with all of the “experts” against them, but if the cause is worthy and the mechanics are correct, it just takes perseverance to eventually succeed.
In one lifetime we went from two guys flying 100 feet to putting a man on the moon. it is a great country, the greatest country, in my judgment, made up of great people. And right now those people are starting to doubt and wonder about their government and about where our nation is headed.
But despite his inspired plea, and a ringing endorsement from McCarthy in nominating him once again, Jordan was unable to close the gap — or even narrow it.
But it doesn’t appear he’s giving up.
Jordan is expected to push for votes throughout the weekend and in an early morning press conference said it was time for the House to get back to work.
“Our plan this weekend is to get a speaker elected to the House of Representatives soon as possible, so we can help the American people,” Jordan told reporters.
Jordan called on Congress to “get to work” and cited the crisis in the Middle East as well as the looming government funding deadline on Nov. 17.
“We’ve got important work to do, important work to do. We need to help Israel. We need to get the appropriations process moving so that the key elements of our government are funded and funded in the right way, particularly our military,” Jordan said.
The question then becomes: What now? Will House members remain in Washington over the weekend and attempt to hammer out a resolution? The GOP conference is set to meet again Friday afternoon at 1:00 pm Eastern, and RedState will continue to provide updates as they become available.
House GOP to meet at 1 pm et to vote on whether the majority of the GOP conference stands behind Jordan as their Speaker nominee
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 20, 2023
