By Todd J. Gillman and Joseph Morton
WASHINGTON — Republicans scrambled to pick a new House speaker after holdouts blocked Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan on a third ballot Friday, ensuring paralysis at the Capitol stretches to three weeks.
Three Texas Republicans quickly joined a small stampede of potential and declared candidates.
Rep. Pete Sessions of Waco, who led the party’s House campaign arm during its landslide wins in the 2010 midterm elections, formally jumped into the race. House Budget chairman Jodey Arrington of Lubbock and Small Business chairman Roger Williams of Willow Park were thinking about it.
“We’re praying about it,” Arrington said during a long walk back to his office, his wife on the cellphone he kept to his ear. “How somebody gets to 217 in this life, not in heaven, is a good question for all of us. I’m seriously considering it.”
Jordan never got more than 200 votes, well shy of the majority needed. The third rejection in four days was an unmistakable repudiation. Others eyeing the gavel were keenly aware of his struggle to unify the fractious conference.
“I’m honored that people have asked me to consider it, and that’s what I’ll do,” said Williams, who touted his experience owning a car dealership.
“People want a fresh face,” he said. “They want somebody who can unite people. … I sure as heck have with my businesses and so forth, making deals, not giving up core values but making things happen moving forward. I bring that kind of thing to the table.”
Sessions held a Dallas-based seat for 11 terms until Democrat Colin Allred defeated him in 2018. He made a comeback two years later in a district that includes Waco and Lufkin. He’s served in several leadership posts, including as chairman of the powerful Rules Committee, which controls how legislation is debated and amended.
Republicans set a noon deadline Sunday for candidates to declare, with a forum Monday night and a secret ballot leadership election Tuesday morning.
By Friday afternoon, the No. 3 ranked Republican, Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, was campaigning for the post that eluded the two men ahead of him in leadership.
If unified, the 25 Republicans from Texas — the most from any state — would be a strong foundation. But with at least three colleagues in the hunt, they would likely be splintered.
“Those are family discussions. They’re very private,” said a Texan who isn’t running, Rep. Michael McCaul of Austin, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. “It’s unprecedented.”
Without an elected speaker the House cannot do business, and pressing agenda items are stacking up.
That includes the huge military and humanitarian aid package for Ukraine and Israel that President Joe Biden called for Thursday night in a prime time televised address, and the looming deadline to avert a government shutdown.
Jordan has resisted further aid to Ukraine as part of a conservative drift away from the traditional GOP view that the United States must confront Russian aggression.
‘Most popular Republican’
By Friday, impatience boiled over for Jordan to step aside if he couldn’t close the deal.
The House has been unable to conduct business since Oct. 3, when a rump group of eight conservatives led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., engineered Kevin McCarthy’s ouster.
The caretaker speaker in place since has no real authority other than to preside over the election of a new speaker. House rules require an elected speaker to conduct legislative business.
McCarthy needed 15 ballots in January to secure the speakership. But the last straw for the rebels who brought him down was a deal he struck to keep the government open for 45 days. That stopgap expires Nov. 17, leaving precious little time and no one for the White House and Senate to haggle with.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., was the first GOP nominee to replace McCarthy. But .Jordan backers refused to fall in line, and he gave up without a floor vote. When Jordan then nabbed the nomination, many Scalise backers were loath to let those tactics pay off.
As the week wore on, resistance hardened as holdouts endured intimidation from conservative media figures and party activists. Some received death threats or reported harassment of their spouses.
Jordan repudiated the pressure tactics, but detractors within the party warned that if he ever did become speaker, such behavior would be the norm.
For conservatives, though, he’s a darling.
Jordan was the founding chair of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, created because its members deemed another conservative bloc too soft. His aggressive questioning of Democratic witnesses over the years brought him national prominence.
“I supported Jim Jordan wholeheartedly and it was a mistake for the Republican conference to just walk away from arguably the most popular Republican in the Republican Party,” said Rep. Chip Roy of Austin. “Now we’ve got to go back and figure out what we’re doing.”
Jordan, chair of the Judiciary Committee, had issued a last-minute plea to holdouts so the House can reopen and speed aid to Israel.
It didn’t work.
He ended up with 25 GOP defections Friday — up from 22 on the second ballot and 20 on the first, all far more than enough to sink him, given the Republicans’ narrow majority.
Republicans then huddled to decide their next move, voting 112 to 86 to strip his speaker nomination.
“My next vote will be for Donald J. Trump,” Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Richmond posted online after casting his third vote for Jordan.
Three of the 25 Texas Republicans opposed Jordan on all three ballots. Reps. Kay Granger of Fort Worth and Tony Gonzales of San Antonio picked House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. Rep. Jake Ellzey voted again for Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., with whom he flew F/A 18 Super Hornets in the Navy.
By the time the roll call reached the E’s, Jordan’s defeat was certain, because he could afford just four defections and Ellzey was the seventh.
Anger at Gaetz and the other rebels ran high.
“This is a dangerous game that’s being played. … The consequences are real for the country,” Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., said afterwards.
Rep. Keith Self of McKinney was among a handful of die-hard conservatives who attended Jordan’s Friday morning news conference to show unwavering support.
“The holdouts will crumble quickly,” he predicted.
That’s not how it played out. Self emerged grim from the afternoon meeting that stripped Jordan’s nomination.
Like other Texans, he was keeping his powder dry as the field came into focus.
“We don’t know who all’s gonna run,” said Rep. Randy Weber, R-Friendswood.
“I haven’t got a candidate right now,” said Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock.
Democrats remained unified behind their leader, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.
Jeffries topped Jordan 212-200 on the first ballot, 212-199 on the second, and 210-194 on Friday.
Republicans hold a 221-212 edge in the House, so it takes just five defections to hobble the majority. The magic number is 217, though it was just 215 Friday, thanks to absences.
McCarthy nominated Jordan on the final ballot, calling him “an effective legislator” despite Democrats’ taunts that he’s failed to pass a single bill in 16 years.
“Being speaker is not an easy job. But I’ve seen Jim spend his entire career fighting for freedom,” McCarthy said. “I know he’s ready for the job.”
Nominating Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., accused Jordan of sowing discord even within his own party while pushing an extremist agenda.
“We need a speaker who will govern with consensus, not conflict … a leader who will defend democracy, not degrade it,” she said.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
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