Political crisis in the USA: the House of Representatives still does not have a speaker

Right-wing Congressman Jim Jordan dropped out of the race for House Speaker after losing a secret ballot. Fellow Republicans are voting against continuing the Ohio congressman’s nomination after his third failed attempt to win support from lawmakers.

Jim Jordan of Ohio was forced to withdraw from the race for House speaker on Friday after his fellow Republicans voted against him continuing to challenge for the seat by secret ballot after his third failed attempt to rally enough support to win the election.

As The Guardian notes, Jordan’s lost bid followed a tense week on Capitol Hill, during which he and his allies tried to persuade more moderate Republicans to support Jordan.

After his loss, Jordan told reporters that he was “going to get back to work” and that it was “time to come together.”

It is unclear who Republicans might nominate as their next candidate. At noon on Sunday, candidates must declare their interest in the speakership. Republicans are expected to return Monday night to hear candidates for speaker, with a vote set for Tuesday. By then, the House of Representatives will be without a speaker for three weeks, unable to do the job for which legislators were elected in the first place.

Some moderate Republicans want to see a consensus candidate, while the far-right flank that ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy previously said they would be “willing to accept censure, suspension or removal from the conference” to win Speaker Jordan’s seat .

A handful of Republican House members have either said they will run for speaker or are considering the idea. Most notable among them is Tom Emmer of Minnesota, currently the majority leader and the No. 3 House Republican backed by McCarthy. Other participants include Oklahoma’s Kevin Hurn, Georgia’s Austin Scott, Florida’s Byron Donalds, Louisiana’s Mike Johnson and Michigan’s Jack Bergman.

In ground floor voting in Tuesday’s speaker election, 20 House Republicans opposed Jordan, leaving him well short of the 217 votes needed to win the top job.

Even as Jordan tried to allay the concerns of moderates, Wednesday’s second floor vote showed opposition only growing stronger as 22 Republicans opposed Jordan’s nomination. In Friday’s third vote, Jordan lost more support, with 25 House Republicans voting against him.

As long as the House remains without a speaker, the chamber cannot advance any legislation, leaving House members unable to pass critical bills such as a stopgap government funding measure or an aid package for Israel and Ukraine. Government funding is set to run out in less than a month, raising the threat of a federal government shutdown next month.

Jordan’s announcement came two weeks after McCarthy’s historic overthrow, after eight House Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the motion to vacate the seat. Following McCarthy’s ouster, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana initially won his conference’s nomination for speaker, but he dropped out of the race last week due to entrenched opposition among far-right lawmakers.

As of Friday, it remained unclear how Republicans could end the standoff and reopen the House. One idea floated by centrist Democrats and supported by some of Jordan’s critics was to expand the powers of the acting speaker, Republican Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, but the plan failed. Such a decision would raise serious constitutional questions because the powers of the acting speaker are murky.

As Republicans became embroiled in the conflict, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York repeatedly called for a bipartisan governing coalition between Democrats and more moderate Republicans. Even Jordan’s most vocal opponents have rejected the idea of ​​joining forces with Democrats, although that could change if the House remains deadlocked, The Guardian notes.

On Friday, Hakeem Jeffries, who received the most votes in the speaker election but would not have enough support to fill the seat because Democrats are in the minority, called on his Republican colleagues to get to work. “Embrace bipartisanship and reject extremism,” Jeffries said.