In the first round of voting today for Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan to be the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, he drew 200 of the 217 Republican votes needed. While he was able to win more than about 30 of the 55 or so Republican congressmen over the last four days, it is not clear if he can convince the final 17 that he needs to win. He had several hours of meetings with Republican holdouts, and then he said that he would call for a second vote for Wednesday, Oct. 18, at 11 a.m.
Jordan’s team thought, yesterday, that they might only be 8-10 votes away. That was after several key Republican opponents of Jordan had announced that they now would support him. Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers and House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert announced yesterday morning on the House floor that they would back him. Vern Buchanan (FL) and Ann Wagner (MO) followed suit: Wagner stated: “Jim Jordan and I spoke at length again this morning, and he has allayed my concerns about keeping the government open with conservative funding, the need for strong border security, our need for consistent international support in times of war and unrest, as well as the need for stronger protections against the scourge of human trafficking and child exploitation. Jim Jordan is our conference nominee, and I will support his nomination for Speaker on the House floor.”
