Things Got Worse for Jim Jordan in Round 2

UPDATE Oct 18, 2023 12:34 PM CDT

As Jim Jordan and some of his allies predicted, things got worse for the would-be House speaker in the second round of voting. He could only afford to lose four Republican votes but lost 22 on Wednesday, up from 20 in Tuesday's vote; that gave him a total of 199 votes, or 18 short of a majority. Two Republicans who voted against Jordan on Tuesday flipped their votes, and one Jordan supporter who was absent yesterday voted for him today, but four Republicans shifted their votes away from Jordan, the Washington Post reports. Most of the non-Jordan GOP votes went to Kevin McCarthy or Steve Scalise. NBC News reports that there was laughter and applause from Democrats when Rep. Mike Kelly voted for John Boehner, who resigned as speaker in 2015.

Oct 18, 2023 10:55 AM CDT

To become speaker, Jordan will need the votes of at least 217 House Republicans, meaning he can only afford to lose four votes from the 221-strong conference. The AP reports Rep. Anthony D'Esposito was one of the 20 who voted against him Tuesday, and while walking into Wednesday's vote he said he still didn't intend to vote for Jordan. Another member of that group told the AP he expected the number of lawmakers voting against Jordan to climb. Jordan ally Rep. Scott Perry said much the same ahead of the second vote on X: "Jordan will likely have FEWER votes today than yesterday—as I expected. This is the fight—which Jim Jordan represents—to end the status quo, and it ain't easy."

The Hill reports Jordan acknowledged on Wednesday that additional Republicans could vote against him on the second ballot, but he voiced a note of optimism, saying, "I know we're gaining. We've got one member who switched, we got another member coming back. We may have some who, you know, switch the other direction, but we'll see." Asked whether he can get to 221 votes, he replied, "I think so. I do." (More Jim Jordan stories.)