Washington — GOP Rep. Jim Jordan‘s third attempt to win the speakership on the House floor takes place at 10 a.m. Friday, after two failed rounds of voting. There has been no clear evidence so far that he can convert enough of the 22 Republicans who voted against him Wednesday to prevail in this next round of voting, but at a news conference Friday morning before the vote, he said, “Our plan this weekend is to get a speaker elected to the House of Representatives as soon as possible,”
He can afford to lose only four GOP votes on the floor if all House lawmakers show up and vote for a candidate.
Jordan said Thursday, “I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race.” But no vote was scheduled that day, though he met with the holdouts late Thursday afternoon. He said he hoped to find a way to “get unified,” “move forward and begin to work for the American people.”
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, Republican of Florida, who voted against Jordan in both rounds, said he hasn’t changed his mind, and it seemed no one else had either.
“We’re still in the same spot,” Gimenez said. “He doesn’t have the votes to be speaker.”
Jordan backed a plan to temporarily expand the power of the interim speaker until early January, but he was forced to reverse course by fellow GOP lawmakers Thursday.
