Hardline Republican Jim Jordan makes grab for US House speaker's gavel

[October 17, 2023]  By David Morgan, Makini Brice and Moira Warburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Jim Jordan will try to claim the gavel of the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday in a vote that could elevate the prominent and combative right-wing figure to one of the most powerful posts in Washington.

Since clinching his party's nomination on Friday, the Ohio lawmaker has spent days trying to bring the 55 fellow Republicans who voted against him into his corner, ahead of Tuesday's expected noon EST (1600 GMT) vote to fill a leadership post that has been vacant for two weeks, grinding the House to a halt.

"I felt good walking into the conference; I feel even better now," Jordan, 59, told reporters after meeting with House Republicans for two hours on Monday evening. His predecessor Kevin McCarthy, the first speaker in U.S. history to be voted out of office, endured a grinding 15 votes over four days in January to win the job.

Jordan will also have to go undergo multiple votes if he cannot get a clear majority of 217 on the first round. At least seven Republicans - more than he can lose and still get elected - said they could oppose him. Others were still undecided.

Since McCarthy's Oct. 3 ouster, Republican infighting has left the House leaderless and unable to address urgent concerns such as support for Israel and Ukraine and funding for the U.S. government.

Jordan, a founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, has for much of his career been seen as a divisive force on Capitol Hill, tangling with Republicans and Democrats alike. Nevertheless, he won the Republican nomination for speaker last Friday and has been consolidating support from former opponents in the party.

Republicans control the House by a narrow 221-212 margin and all Democrats are expected to vote against him.

Eight House Republicans engineered McCarthy's ouster three days after he cut a Sept. 30 deal with Democrats to keep the federal government funded through Nov. 17.

Some of Jordan's hardline allies urged their followers to launch pressure campaigns against any Republican representatives who voted against him on Tuesday.

"My office has gotten bombarded by calls, overwhelmingly in support of Jim, but … not all from constituents," said Representative Marc Molinaro, a New York Republican.

"Most people I represent wouldn't know the speaker of the House if they backed over him with a pickup truck," he said.

House Democrats recoiled at the prospect of Jordan rising to become the chamber's leader.

"To hand him the gavel is to chose MAGA extremism over America," No. 2 House Democrat Katherine Clark wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, referring to former President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan.

U.S. Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) who is vying for the position of Speaker of the House, speaks to the media following a meeting of House Republicans as the Republicans continue to try to elect a new Speaker, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., October 16, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

The speaker of the House is second in line to the U.S. president after the vice president.

BACKED TRUMP'S FALSE CLAIMS

Jordan comes at the job from a profoundly different angle from other leaders in Congress, who typically wield influence by raising money and keeping their party united.

A fixture on conservative media outlets, Jordan amplified Trump's false claims of election fraud in 2020. As chair of the House Judiciary Committee, he is helping lead an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden that Democrats decry as baseless.

He helped found the House Freedom Caucus, which then-Speaker John Boehner dubbed "legislative terrorists" before members of that group pressured him to retire. Jordan was an architect of government shutdowns in 2013 and 2018.

Jordan had a more productive relationship with McCarthy, who was forced out by a small group of Republican insurgents.

Republicans nominated Steve Scalise to succeed McCarthy last week, but he abandoned his bid after he was unable to consolidate support - a development that some Republicans blame on Jordan and his supporters.

"We've had a minority of the majority dictate all of us, and it's unacceptable," said Representative Don Bacon, who plans to vote against Jordan.

Should Jordan's bid for speaker stall, Republican rivals have identified several alternative candidate, including No. 3 House Republican Tom Emmer, conservative Representative Kevin Hern and acting Speaker Patrick McHenry, who is presiding over the speaker election.

Democrats have also floated the possibility of a bipartisan agreement.

Before entering politics, Jordan served as a wrestling coach at Ohio State University. That past threatened his political career in 2018 when former students accused him of turning a blind eye to rampant sexual abuse of college wrestlers by the wrestling team's doctor, when Jordan was an assistant coach.

Jordan denied all allegations, and a university investigation found no hard evidence that he knew of the abuse.

(Reporting by David Morgan, Makini Brice and Moira Warburton; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Gerry Doyle)

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