House GOP conference votes to remove Jordan as speaker-designate after he lost on 3 ballots

The House GOP conference voted via secret ballot in a closed-door meeting on Friday to remove Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as speaker-designate after he lost in 3 rounds of voting for House speaker.

Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, came up short in a third round of voting on Friday for speaker on the House floor.

"Jim Jordan's out of the race," Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga., said after the House GOP conference meeting on Friday. "We're supposed to come back for a candidate forum on Monday at 6:30pm."

Jordan addressed the media after the meeting.

“We need to come together and figure out who our speaker is going to be," he said. "I’m going to work as hard as I can to help that individual so that we can go help the American people.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who introduced the motion to vacate the chair that led to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's removal, reacted to the vote to remove Jordan on the social media platform X.

"The most popular Republican in Congress was just knifed in an anonymous vote in a secret closed door meeting in the basement of the Capitol," he wrote. "This is the Swamp at work."

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, told reporters that he plans to now vote for former President Donald Trump for speaker.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., called for the 8 conservatives that voted for the motion to vacate the chair and remove McCarthy to be held accountable for causing the current situation.

"Every single person that voted to punish bipartisanship ought to be held accountable, everyone," he said. "Everybody needs to be abundantly clear that we had a speaker who put a two-party bill on the floor to avert a government shutdown and he was punished for it. That is the worst message you can send to America."

Gaetz and other conservatives who voted with House Democrats to oust McCarthy had said earlier on Friday that they would remove themselves from the GOP conference if GOP holdouts agreed to support Jordan.

Meanwhile, Democrats evidently see the House GOP's delay in electing a speaker as an advantage for them in the next election.

“MAGA House Republicans’ self-inflicted chaos and chronic inability to govern stands in stark contrast to President Biden’s strong and steady leadership at this critical moment for global security," Ammar Moussa, spokesperson for President Biden's 2024 campaign, said on Friday.