A version of this story appeared in the On Background newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive On Background delivered directly to your inbox each Friday.
Rep. Jim Jordan plans to continue his bid for speaker, refusing to abandon his quest amid chaos and discord within the House Republican Party.
At a Friday morning press conference at the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Jordan said he would seek a third vote, though he appeared poised to again fall short of the roughly 217 needed to win.
The vote was expected later Friday morning, but Mr. Jordan signaled he would keep fighting to round up more votes through the weekend.
“Our plan this weekend is to get a speaker elected to the House of Representatives,” Mr. Jordan said. “We need to get to work for the American people. We can’t do that if the House isn’t open, and we can’t open the House until we get a speaker.”
Mr. Jordan had the support of 200 Republicans on Tuesday in the first round of voting and 199 on Wednesday in the second round of voting. Nearly two dozen holdouts have remained firm in their opposition, many of them appropriators who do not like Mr. Jordan’s desire to slash spending.
Some of the holdouts have urged Mr. Jordan to drop out of the speaker race.
The House has entered a third week without being able to legislate. House rules prohibit anyone but an elected speaker from running the House.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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