Jim Jordan tries to win over GOP to become next House speaker – live

Rep Jim Jordan told CNN that he’s planning to go to the floor of the House for a speaker vote tomorrow at 12pm ET, regardless if he has the votes he needs or not.

Mr Jordan said previously that he didn’t want to go to the floor before securing the support of 217 Republicans.

“We’ll go the floor tomorrow,” he told Manu Raju.

“That’s how our great system works. And we will go to the floor tomorrow. It’s not about pressuring anybody just about we got to have a speaker. You can’t open the House and do the work of the American people and help our dearest and closest friend Israel,” he added.

“We set it for 12pm. I feel good about it,” he said.

When Mr Jordan was asked if he would move on to a second vote if he fails on the first, he simply said: “We are going to elect a speaker tomorrow.”

“If you don’t have a speaker, so we get a speaker, we get the House open and we get to work on the resolution and supplemental for Israel,” he told the network. “And we get back to work for the American people. That’s what I’ve committed to doing.”

When asked about his earlier comments on only going to the floor after having secured 217 votes, Mr Jordan said, “I do think that’s, that’s ideal, but … I don’t know if there’s any way to ever get that in the room. I would love that. But I think the only way to do this is the way the Founders intended”.

While Mr Jordan and his allies have shrunk the number of members set to vote against him, he remains below the threshold of 217 votes.

As a right-wing provocateur, Jim Jordan has spent more time opposing spending bills, famously teaming up with Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other conservatives to shut down the government to try and defund Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, despite the fact Mr Obama was still president. Indeed, when he was offered an opportunity to become a member of the prestigious House Appropriations Committee when Republicans took control in 2011, he passed and chose instead to become Republican Study Committee chairman.

All of these choices will come back to haunt him. They already have. Mr McCarthy, fearful that Mr Jordan would mete out the same medicine he gave to Mr Ryan and Mr Boehner, chose to keep Mr Jordan close to his side. Mr Jordan seemed to enjoy being close to leadership to amass power.

But in January, despite Mr Jordan supporting Mr McCarthy, Mr Gaetz emerged as a further-right bomb-thrower who nominated Mr Jordan, which took the House to 15 rounds to pick a speaker.

Now, rather than having a unified Republican conference, Mr Jordan’s influence showed that any Republican could raise objections and gum up the House to get attention, even if they do not have specific demands. This will be unlikely to change even if he wins the speakership. And if he falls, it will be on the sword he laid down.

Many Republicans come to Washington as bomb-throwers who later mature, learn how to govern and advance conservative goals. John Boehner went from being an insurgent who later worked with Ted Kennedy on education, and Paul Ryan passed budgets with a Democratic Senate.

But Jim Jordan never needed to “grow up.” Rather, since he arrived in Congress in 2007, he chose to cater to right-wing media and the overwhelmingly conservative base of the Republican Party. By the time he got to Washington, the incentive structure to “grow up” no longer existed. As a child of the Tea Party, the anti-GOP establishment movement, learning how to work within the system would be antithetical to his persona.

Democrats and Republicans alike have noted how he’s never authored legislation. That would have taught him a vital skill, how to count votes, since speakers need to know how many votes they need to count votes on bills and dollars for fundraising to keep their majorities.

Mr Jordan still needs to get to the magic number of 217 votes. Haley Talbot of CNN, whose spreadsheets on social media do a better job of counting votes so far than any candidate for speaker, noted that four Republicans remain sceptical of Mr Jordan and two Republicans – Florida Reps Carlos Gimenez and John Rutherford – will only back deposed speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Even if Mr Jordan somehow wins over all of his sceptics and earns enough votes to become speaker, he will largely live with the consequences of his life’s work: Allowing any single member to object to the will of congressional leadership and cause the House to descend into chaos. Similarly, his years of doing so rather than learning the mechanics of governing will likely make him ill-equipped to tame those impulses from House Republicans.

On Monday, Florida Democrat Jared Moskowitz piled on the criticism of GOP moderates who are reported to be about to cave and hand the speakership to Rep Jim Jordan.

“Jordan will win the speakership tomorrow. It may take multiple rounds. Moderates will cave. This was always the plan by the Freedom Caucus. It wasn’t just about removing McCarthy, but installing one of their own. Freedom Caucus played chess. The rest played checkers,” Mr Moskowitz said on X.

On 13 October, Sahil Kapur of NBC News noted that a GOP staffer said that he was sure that Rep Jim Jordan would get the gavel.

“The people opposing him are moderates. Either he gets it or the moderates for the first time ever grow a spine,” the aide told NBC.

On Monday, Mr Kapur added: “Of note: today is World Spine Day.”

The crisis of the House speakership is about to roll into its second week. On Friday, as House Republicans left Washington, it looked like Jim Jordan would struggle to win over the members of his conference. During the first vote among Republicans, more than 80 members voted against him and in the second round, 55 Republicans voted against him.

The votes revealed his weaknesses as a congressional leader. He passed on having a roll call vote rather than a secret ballot. Having a roll call vote would have told him whom he needed to call during the weekend, whom he needed to win over and what promises he needed to make his opponents to get them to yes.

The tide seems to be turning in his favor. On Monday, Rep Ann Wagner of Missouri, who had vehemently opposed Mr Jordan, said she would get behind him, saying she spoke with the Ohio Republican and “he has allayed my concerns.” Similarly, Rep Mike Rogers (R-AL), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee who many might remember for nearly fighting Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in January, threw his support behind Mr Jordan.

Even as the tide is beginning to turn for Rep Jim Jordan and his initially uphill climb to become speaker of the House, a number of GOP members still say that he’s going to struggle to get the votes he needs – 217 – on the floor of the chamber where a vote is expected at noon on Tuesday (17 October).

Anti-Jordan members were struggling to get the ball rolling on Monday as they attempted to rally around an alternative candidate.

One House GOP member told Politico that the anti-Jordan coalition would likely be putting up Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who already attempted and failed to get the gavel, as a protest candidate instead of a real challenger.

The member said that discussions on how to block Mr Jordan were still continuing on Monday.

Republicans who were criticising Rep Jim Jordan on Friday, such as Reps Vern Buchanan and Ann Wagner, indicated on Monday that they would be backing his speakership bid.

An anonymous member of the GOP told Politico that the point of view of Rep Jim Jordan and his allies is that all of the holdouts and flippable except for Rep Ken Buck of Colorado, noting that he and Mr Jordan “have history”.

Mr Buck and Mr Jordan got into scuffles in recent years on how to push back against tech monopolies and over anti-trust legislation.

In January, Mr Jordan chose Rep Thomas Massie of Kentucky instead of Mr Buck to head the antitrust panel on the Judiciary Committee.

GOP members told Politico said they were shocked by the flipping of Rep Ann Wagner, who was a strong no on Mr Jordan as recently as Friday.

Allies of Mr Jordan posted the phone numbers of the offices of the lawmakers who remained against his bid, opening the floodgates of fury from grassroots and rightwing media.