House Republicans Nominate Jim Jordan to be House Speaker

Republicans have chosen Jim Jordan as their new nominee for House speaker during internal party voting.

Friday's vote puts the staunch ally of Donald Trump within reach of the speaker's gavel.

The Ohio congressman now must secure support from the rest of his colleagues ahead of a House floor vote.

That could push into next week.

Jordan is the hard-line chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

He emerged after Majority Leader Steve Scalise abruptly ended his bid when it became clear holdouts refused to back him.

Frustrated Republicans have been searching desperately to try to replace ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Asked if he would throw his support behind Jordan, Scalise said, “It’s got to be people that aren’t doing it for themselves and their own personal interest.”

But Jordan's allies swung into high gear at a chance for the hard-right leader to seize the gavel.

“Make him the speaker. Do it tonight,” said Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind. “He’s the only one who can unite our party.”

Jordan also received an important nod Friday from the Republican party’s campaign chairman, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., who made an attempt to unify the fighting factions.

“Removing Speaker Kevin McCarthy was a mistake,” Hudson wrote on social media, saying the party found itself at a crossroads also blocking Scalise. “We must unite around one leader.”

On Friday, another California Republican, Rep. Tom McClintock, had introduced a motion to reinstate McCarthy during the morning meeting, but it was shelved.

“I just told them, no, let’s not do that,” McCarthy said afterward. “Let’s walk through this and have an election.”

The situation is not fully different from the start of the year, when McCarthy faced a similar backlash from a different group of far-right holdouts who ultimately gave their votes to elect him speaker, then engineered his historic downfall.

But the math this time is even more daunting, and the problematic political dynamic is only worsening.

Exasperated Democrats, who have been waiting for the Republican majority to recover from McCarthy’s ouster, urged them to figure it out.

“The House Democrats have continued to make clear that we are ready, willing and able to find a bipartisan path forward,” Jeffries said, including doing away with the rule that allows a single lawmaker to force a vote against the speaker. “But we need traditional Republicans to break from the extremists and partner with us.”