By GARRETT BERQUIST
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio failed on the first vote to capture the speakership of the U.S. House on Tuesday as nearly two dozen House Republicans, including Indiana’s Victoria Spartz, refused to back him.
More voting is expected as Jordan works to shore up support to replace the ousted Kevin McCarthy for the job.
Rep. Greg Pence, R-Ind., said Jordan’s supporters thought they would lose at most five or six votes when lawmakers took to the House floor just past noon.
Instead, 20 Republicans cast ballots for other candidates, far more than enough to prevent Jordan from getting enough votes to assume the gavel. More than half of the renegade votes went to McCarthy and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both of whom voted for Jordan.
Pence said many of the votes against Jordan came from people he didn’t expect.
“It’s deja vu all over again. What a shame,” he said. “It’s worse than everyone thought.”
Spartz voted for Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. Prior to the vote, she had released a statement in which she accused McCarthy of trying to undermine Scalise in favor of Jordan in closed-door Republican conference meetings.
All of Indiana’s other Republicans voted for Jordan. Its two Democrats, Andre Carson and Frank Mrvan, supported their party’s nominee, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. In a tweet just before the vote, Carson said of Jordan, “With so much at stake, we don’t need a MAGA extremist in charge of the House.”
Pence said he never felt like anyone tried to strong-arm him or anyone else into voting for Jordan. He said some Jordan opponents had indicated they would oppose him on the first ballot and support him on the second ballot but called 20 votes “a tall hill to climb.”
Pence said Tuesday’s vote is the third time House Republicans have rejected someone he considers to be a solid choice for speaker, the other two being McCarthy and Scalise.
“We’re not passing bills, we’re not passing appropriations, we’re barely keeping the government open,” Pence said. “The vast majority of us are very frustrated with the minority running the majority.”
Rep. Spartz issues statement on House Speaker vote
Spartz
On Monday, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.-05) issued the following statement on the speaker vote:
Since politics is complicated with many things happening behind the scenes, I owe my constituents and all Americans an explanation of my position on the current situation with the speaker’s race.
I dedicated most of my adult life to Republican politics, since my kids were in strollers, and probably more energy to it than to family and businesses. Therefore, I care dearly for my party to lead and succeed for the American people against a very powerful and oppressive Democrat machine.
I did vote for Kevin McCarthy, reluctantly, in January after moving to “present” to express my dissatisfaction when he tried to intimidate conservatives on the floor into voting for him. I also reluctantly decided not to vacate him regardless of how I felt about his policy failures. I did not support Steve Scalise in conference, but publicly said I would support him on the first vote if goes to the floor. I also asked Steve not to act tyrannically as Kevin did if he cannot get the vote in conference, which he graciously did.
I voted to support Jim Jordan in conference, but what happened Friday night is not acceptable. After undermining Steve and appearing to make some kind of a deal with Jim, Kevin forced the conference to adjourn and announced that Jim Jordan was going to be our speaker next week. Unfortunately, Jim did not object to Kevin, as also on a few other occasions as the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
I hate to remind Kevin, but we fought a war not to have kings with successors. I am willing to give Jim another chance and assess his wisdom of governing to allow conference, not floor, deliberation on his nomination to proceed tomorrow as he promised during the conference debate.
I would also like to remind Jim that Republicans are not sheep and will refuse to support him if he will try to use the same McCarthy intimidation techniques on members on the floor, even if I have to run again, so McCarthy and his friends have a chance to primary me.