Jim Jordan's Election Denial Helps Deny Him First Vote For Speaker
Rep. Jim Jordan's role in Trump's plot to overturn the 2020 election came back to haunt him in a humiliating first round of votes that was worse than Kevin McCarthy's.
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Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was seen laughing in the House chamber as the votes against Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) piled up. Jordan could only afford to lose 4 Republican votes. First, there was 1. Then there were 5. Then shock set in among Jordan's allies as the reality of the first ballot results set in.
20 Republicans opposed Jordan’s Speaker bid, voting instead for random Republicans who weren’t even nominated for Speaker on this ballot and for one who is no longer in office.
Here’s the vote breakdown:
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY): 212, unanimous Dem votes
Jim Jordan (R-OH): 200
Kevin McCarthy (R-CA): 6
Former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY): 3
Steve Scalise (R-LA): 7
Mike Garcia (R-CA): 1
Tom Emmer (R-MN): 1
Tom Cole (R-OK): 1
Thomas Massie (R-KY): 1
I had a very different article prepared for today in the reality where Jim Jordan won the Speakership. It dove into his record of obstruction and extremism in the House and what that indicates about how he will govern as Speaker. It also discussed the allegations that he ignored Richard Strauss’s abuse of OSU wrestlers. Fortunately, for now at least, that article remains in my drafts.
On Monday, it was looking like Jim Jordan was building up momentum towards winning the Speakership. There were some expected holdouts, enough to fail the first ballot, but the opposition we saw in today’s vote was much larger than anyone anticipated.
After the first ballot failed this afternoon, Dana Bash reported on CNN that a Jim Jordan ally said: “This is much worse than we expected.”
Rather than go to an immediate second round of voting, the House went into recess as Jim Jordan scrambled to try and convince his opposition to back his bid. Jordan now has a steep hill to climb. Here are the holdouts:
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) - voted for McCarthy.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) - voted for Emmer.
Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) - voted for McCarthy.
Rep. Anthony D'Esposito (R-NY) - voted for Zeldin.
Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) - voted for Scalise.
Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-TX) - voted for Garcia.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) - voted for Zeldin.
Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL) - voted for McCarthy.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) - voted for Scalise.
Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) - voted for Scalise.
Rep. John James (R-MI) - voted for Cole.
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) - voted for Scalise.
Rep. Jennifer Kiggans (R-VA) - voted for McCarthy.
Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) - voted for Zeldin.
Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) - voted for McCarthy.
Rep. Michael Lawler (R-NY) - voted for McCarthy.
Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL) - voted for Scalise.
Rep. Michael Simpson (R-ID) - voted for Scalise.
Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) - voted for Massie.
Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) - voted for Scalise.
This is even stronger opposition than former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) faced in his Speaker bid in January, which lasted 15 rounds. In the first ballot, McCarthy faced 19 votes against his bid.
It appears Jim Jordan and his allies were overconfident in the pressure campaign they launched against their opposition. Fox News Anchor Sean Hannity straight-up attempted to whip votes for Jordan, emailing Jordan holdouts asking for comment on why they aren’t supporting his Speakership bid. It wasn’t enough. Jordan’s polarizing record was too much for his opposition to stomach, in particular his election denial.
The Echoes Of Jim Jordan’s Role In January 6
After the vote, staunch conservative Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), who helped lead the opposition to Jordan’s speakership bid, made the rounds on news networks. He doubled down on his main reason for opposing Jordan on CNN with Jake Tapper, saying that he doesn’t want an election denier to be Speaker. His logic also has some electoral calculations:
"I also want to make sure that we don’t have somebody who was involved in the activities surrounding January 6. And I think that if we have a presidential candidate, who right now is leading, who denies that he lost the election and was obviously behind what happened on January 6, and we have a Speaker in a similar situation… We have 20 Republicans sitting in districts that Joe Biden won in 2020, and those 20 Republicans are going to be at risk. There's no way we win the majority if the message we send to the American people is that we believe the election was stolen, and we believe that January 6 was ok, it was a tour of the Capitol."
Buck is right. Jim Jordan not only voted to overturn the 2020 election, he also played a key role in planning the congressional attempt to overturn legitimate electors, as well as the lies to undermine faith in the election. Jordan held a strategizing session with Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani and discussed challenges to the election.
On January 5, Jim Jordan forwarded a text to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, arguing that Vice President Mike Pence should refuse to certify Biden electors. Donald Trump spoke to Jordan at least twice on January 6. Jordan later sought a pardon for his role in the January 6 insurrection, according to the January 6 Committee.
A man who was instrumental in Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election is now running to sit in the highest office in the same Capitol building where his lies helped incite a siege. An election denier is seeking to be placed second in line to the presidency.
To this day, Jim Jordan refuses to acknowledge the election was legit. Ahead of the Speaker vote, CNN’s Manu Raju asked Jim Jordan: “Why won’t you say to Ken Buck that the election was not stolen in 2020?”
Jim Jordan responded with silence. The answer, of course, is that his most important supporter is Donald Trump, and he wouldn’t dare cross him.
What Happens Next?
After previously saying there would be another vote today, Jim Jordan later said there won’t be. It likely became clear he wouldn’t be able to convince Buck and other holdouts to flip tonight. Jordan said another vote will come Wednesday morning at 11 am EST.
Ken Buck told Jake Tapper that other Republicans who who didn’t publicly vote against Jordan have spoken to him and whispered “thank you.” Those lawmakers feared the backlash they'd get from right-wing media and the GOP base. He claims they’ll now vote against Jordan on the second ballot, after being given cover to do so by those who voted no in the first. We’ll see if they follow through.
It’s been 14 days since Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted as Speaker of the House. There is a looming government shutdown that will happen exactly one month from today if Congress does not come to an agreement on a continuing resolution. Last week, I wrote about the domestic and international impacts this Speakership vacuum is having. The pressure is mounting for Republicans to get this chaos under control.
We’ll see if Jim Jordan, a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, which has been responsible for much of the congressional dysfunction over the past decade, will lead that very same body.
If he does win, I’ll publish an article about what that means for Congress and the country. If not, I’ll happily keep that article in my drafts.