After losing two rounds of voting, Rep. Jim Jordan said that he’d try a third time to become House speaker. As recently as Thursday morning, Jordan’s spokesperson Russel Dye told The Washington Post, “Jordan will be the next speaker.”
Now, Jordan has reportedly flip-flopped.
In a meeting, Jordan announced his intent to suspend his bid for the speakership, according to his colleagues’ remarks to national media. Instead of forcing a third vote, Jordan is reportedly endorsing a resolution to temporarily hand more responsibilities to Acting Speaker Patrick McHenry, R-N.C.
McHenry, the unelected leader of the House, is navigating uncharted waters. The House has yet to elect a permanent speaker, a war is escalating in Israel and Palestine and the U.S. government is ticking closer to a shutdown. The 10-term lawmaker, who is a close McCarthy ally, is trying to encourage action without encouraging rash decision-making.
McHenry has been tight-lipped about his role as speaker pro tempore. So far, he’s tried to push Republicans towards uniting behind a speaker.
Earlier this month, McHenry joked with lawmakers that he would lock them in a room and withhold food and water until the election of a new speaker, Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., told the Associated Press.
Some lawmakers — perhaps including Jordan — want McHenry’s powers to extend beyond just presiding over the election of a new speaker.
One group of centrist GOP representatives, led by Ohio Republican Rep. David Joyce, is preparing a resolution that would explicitly grant McHenry some power to bring legislation to the floor, endowing his role with new and defined authority.
Joyce reportedly wants to empower McHenry only through the rest of the year, some representatives told the Associated Press.
After the resolution’s expiration date, Jordan might run again.
“What’s taking place in the world — it’s important that we take time to empower the present speaker who’s there under rules that were never really officially developed,” said Joyce earlier this week.
McHenry was named to the role of speaker pro tempore by McCarthy as part of a process established in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Never before used or tested, the role of the acting speaker was designed as a way to keep Congress functioning in the event of a death or incapacitation. McCarthy, after becoming speaker, drafted a list of successors… and he put McHenry’s name at the very top.
While Joyce is pushing to empower McHenry for a period of up to 90 days during which a speaker pro tempore would be empowered to advance legislation, it is not clear whether Republicans could unite around even a temporary leader.
Some Republicans said Thursday they wanted to stay focused on electing a new speaker, and many are likely to resist handing McHenry more authority. Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, chair of the conservative Freedom Caucus, told national media that the measure “doesn’t seem to be the right way to elect a speaker to me.”
More institutionalist Republicans — like Rep. Brian Mast of Florida — have reportedly said that, if McHenry wants to become House speaker, then he should run for House speaker.
On the other side of the aisle, some Democrats have described empowering McHenry as a high-risk, low-reward endeavor.
“I am waiting to see what the assurances are around power sharing,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the far-left Congressional Progressive Caucus, told the Post. “What do we have to ensure what happens here reflects the fact that Dems are essentially governing this body?”
Other Democrats have argued that McHenry’s role was created for the sole purpose of electing a new speaker, on guard against a new precedent in the House that they fear could someday be abused.
Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, posted on social media that McHenry’s “job is to guide the House toward the election of a new Speaker. That’s it.”
However, some experts in congressional law have pointed out that Congress sets its own rules. “Congress has the power to do what it wants here,” said Josh Chafetz, a professor of law and politics at Georgetown Law School.
Still, Democrat leadership has yet to rule out the option.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has expressed openness to voting for McHenry.
“All options are on the table to end the Republican civil war and get back to work,” Jeffries has said. “We’ve been saying from the very beginning that we want a bipartisan path forward that does not involve Jim Jordan.”
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.