Jordan pushes another House speaker vote to Friday

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The House will hold a vote for speaker Friday to give Republican nominee Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio a third shot at the gavel as he struggles to convince nearly two dozen holdouts to back him.

The stalemate, now in its third week, has empowered Democrats in the minority to ambitiously eye a deal to elect a speaker with some frustrated Republicans who would give them more power and perhaps an equal say over the agenda.

Mr. Jordan, the favored candidate of the GOP’s hardline conservative faction, has lost two rounds of voting thanks to opposition from some appropriators and others who want to thwart the archconservatives who ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, on Oct. 3.

“I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race, but I want to go talk to a few of my colleagues,” Mr. Jordan said.

Mr. Jordan met privately in the Capitol with top GOP leaders and a group of about a dozen holdouts late Thursday. According to one lawmaker in the room, little progress was made toward convincing them to change their votes and back Mr. Jordan and a few asked him to drop out. 

“He’s going to make up his own mind,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez, Florida Republican and Jordan holdout, said after the meeting. 

Mr. Jordan appears destined to lose Friday on his third ballot even as House lawmakers grow increasingly frustrated over the paralysis the empty speaker’s chair has caused.

The House has been essentially shuttered since Mr. McCarthy’s removal under a rule that prohibits anyone except an elected speaker from running the House.

A sizable group of House Republicans quickly rejected a backup plan Thursday to elect Rep. Patrick McHenry to the role of temporary speaker. Mr. McHenry, of North Carolina, was appointed to serve as emergency speaker after Mr. McCarthy’s ouster but the rules only allow him to gavel in and out of session and hold the election for a permanent speaker.

“We are obligated to elect a speaker and I’m glad we were able to throw cold water on a speaker-lite as a governing concept,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and Jordan supporter, said.

Without the backing of nearly all of the GOP, the plan to elevate Mr. McHenry would require cooperation from Democrats who will demand concessions or an agreement requiring Republicans to cede their narrow majority and share power. 

A small band of moderate Republicans have threatened to work with Democrats on such a plan as the days drag on with no speaker and a House that has been unable to function.

Democrats haven’t defined their demands yet.

“We are willing to take responsibility for moving things forward on a bipartisan path,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland Democrat, said. “But obviously, if our votes are needed, we’re going to be substantively involved in the definition of what the agenda is.”

House Republicans met privately Thursday to try to carve out a path forward, either by electing Mr. Jordan or elevating Mr. McHenry to conduct legislative business while the conference hashes out who should get the job permanently. 

Republicans were as deadlocked as ever. Mr. Jordan’s opponents were dug in on their “no” votes and Mr. Jordan’s enthusiastic base of support among the right flank of the conference was nowhere near ready to give up on getting him into the speaker’s chair.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, blamed the GOP chaos on the eight hard-line conservatives who voted with Democrats to oust Mr. McCarthy.

“Our conference has a responsibility to the American people, to our districts to work together and unify,” she said. “And this conference is absolutely broken.”