High bar: Jim Jordan must pick up more than 60 votes to win speakership on House floor

The GOP-led House of Representatives still doesn't have a speaker after an unprecedented 11 days.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, won the speaker nomination on Friday 124-81 over Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga. Jordan previously lost to Scalise 113-99 but the Louisiana Republican backed out of the running due to a lack of votes to win a simple majority on the House floor. A simple majority is currently 217 due to vacancies. 

In the hopes of avoiding another marathon speaker election in public view on the House floor, the conference held a closed-door test vote to gauge how much support Jordan would have from Republican members on the House floor. The final tally was 152-55 so he still needs to pick up 65 votes to win, which is no small task. 

For comparison, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had 188 votes secured before coming to the House floor in January. He was elected after 15 rounds and removed on Oct. 3 after Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced a motion to vacate the chair that passed the full House with Democrat votes and 8 Republican votes.

Moderate Republicans are lukewarm about Jordan holding the gavel due to his ties to the conservative House Freedom Caucus, which he founded. Jordan does have the endorsement of McCarthy and former President Donald Trump but that might not be enough to secure 65 votes by Monday evening.

"I think he’s got the votes, but we’ll see," McCarthy said on Friday before lawmakers left for the weekend.

Some GOP House members are still supporting McCarthy even though he asked not to be nominated on the floor.

Reps. John Rutherford, R-Fla., and Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., are among the congressmen advocating for the House to reinstall McCarthy as its speaker.

"I'm a no on allowing Matt Gaetz and the other seven to win by putting their individual in as Speaker," said Rutherford, who said he would oppose Jordan on the floor.

Gaetz shot back on his X account and said Rutherford "would vote against Speaker-Designate Jim Jordan just to spite me. I hope he gets some feedback from Floridians that this is selfish and bad for the country. By contrast, removing McCarthy was both popular and just given his lies and broken promises."

Just the News has learned that there's a growing interest among the House GOP conference to make Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., the speaker at least temporary but constitutional questions about such a move remain. GOP lawmakers are discussing ways to make it work as a backup plan. Even moderate Democrats offered on Friday to back McHenry as a temporary speaker with all the powers of the office if the GOP cannot soon choose a permanent speaker.

“In light of our nation’s pressing issues, a looming government shutdown, and the attacks on our key ally, Israel, we strongly support an immediate vote to expand the Speaker Pro Tempore’s authorities to all for the consideration of a legislative agenda limited to the most pressing issues,” the letter read. It was signed by Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., Ed Case, D-Hawaii, Susie Lee, D-Nev., and Jared Golden, D-Maine.

Congress must pass a federal spending bill by Nov. 17 to avoid a shutdown. Lawmakers have also called for action on Ukraine and Israel aid, but voting on legislation is frozen until a speaker is elected.

The House is reconvening at 6pm Monday but it is unclear if the speaker election will be held on floor at that time.