WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House of Representatives is still without a Speaker. On Tuesday, members held their first round of votes but republicans were unable to get enough support for Jim Jordan of Ohio to win the gavel.
Right now the House is in recess but members told us they could come back for a vote sooner rather than later. On Tuesday’s vote, it felt like a little deja vu that the nominee didn’t win the gavel on the first round, just like former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R- CA) which went 15 rounds back in January. In this first of potentially many rounds of voting, there were many republicans not voting for Jordan. One of which was Pennsylvania Congressman Mike Kelly (R- PA).
We caught up with Kelly following the vote, he said he’s frustrated with this procedure, specifically how the republican conference changed their votes after nominating Steve Scalise (R- LA) earlier last week. We also heard from New York Representative Nick Langworthy (R- NY) who backed Jordan on Tuesday’s floor vote. Here’s what they had to say:
“We had a vote in House and Steve Scalise won the majority of the majority,” said Rep. Kelly. “That’s the Hastert Rule. We then had a group that said that’s not my vote so I will not support him if it goes to the floor. What are we running here? If it’s not who you voted for you refuse to vote for this person? That’s ridiculous, that’s ridiculous.”
“I know when I’ve been in my district in the state of New York they want a functional House of Representatives,” said Rep. Langworthy. “We can’t support Israel. We can’t do our jobs. We can’t appropriate funds if we’re not open for business and we need a Speaker of the House to do that.”
Langworthy told us he’s disappointed there wasn’t more support for Jordan. Langworthy believes Jordan can bring the conference together in a way because he said Jordan is uniquely qualified to bring together far right and moderate republicans, but that’s easier said that done. It’s still an uphill battle. Members like Kelly are frustrated with how things are being run. He’s even introducing a resolution to temporarily expand the powers of the Speaker Pro Tempore until the House agrees on a new Speaker or until mid November when those budget deadlines come around. We will continue to monitor any developments on the Speaker election.
