Republican Conference Removes Jordan as Speaker Nominee

WASHINGTON — The House Republican Conference voted to withdraw its endorsement of Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, for House speaker by secret ballot Friday afternoon, evidently seeing no need to prolong the misery after the House Judiciary chair lost in three rounds of voting by ever-growing margins.

According to sources that were in the room when the vote took place, the final count was 86 for Jordan and 112 against.

Shortly afterwards, Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, announced he would now run for speaker.

Hern, who voted for Jordan to stay as the conference’s speaker designate, explained his decision on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, saying, “We just had two speaker designates go down. We must unify and do it fast.”

He continued: “I’ve spoken to every member of the conference over the last few weeks. We need a different type of leader who has a proven track record of success, which is why I’m running.”

First elected to the House in 2018, Hern initially planned to pursue a career in astronautical engineering, before dropping out of a Ph.D. program in the subject following the Challenger disaster in 1986.

He later received an M.B.A. from University of Arkansas, but by then he was well on his way to business success as the owner of several McDonald’s franchises.

Though he sold the last of his McDonald’s franchises in 2021, Hern continues to be involved in a number of other business enterprises, including owning a hog farm, a community bank and a number of high school sports publications.

His record in Congress, as might be expected of the chair of the Republican Study Committee, is decidedly conservative and his record in terms of bipartisanship is negligible.

The committee, a caucus made up solely of conservative Republicans, typically pushes for deep cuts in non-defense spending, is staunchly supportive of the right to keep and bear arms, and regularly advocates for socially conservative legislation.

In December 2020, Hern was one of 126 Republican members of the House to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed directly in the Supreme Court that contested the results of the 2020 presidential election.

More recently, he was among the 71 Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which along with other changes to federal spending policy, suspended the limit on federal debt through Jan. 1, 2025.

Hern was nominated to be the House speaker on the eighth round of voting in January, and received two votes, from Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Josh Brecheen, R-Okla.

Hern at the time voted for the eventual winner, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

Boebert nominated Hern again on the 10th ballot, in which he received seven votes. On the 11th ballot, he was nominated by Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., and again received seven votes.

In each of those cases, Hern was a passive participant in his nominations. But on Oct. 4, he announced he would run for speaker this time around, only to suspend his campaign three days later.

At the time he said he removed himself from contention believing that a three-way race was not in the interest of the party.

One other potential candidate has expressed a tepid interest in running for speaker, Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., but evidently has only said he’d be interested in holding the post until the current term ends.

That’s a likely no-go as Republicans have already shown resistance to a proposal floated earlier this week that would have given the current speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., additional powers on an interim basis.

Other candidates may emerge over the weekend.

As of now, the House Republicans are expected to reconvene for a candidate forum on Monday in hopes of actually voting on a nominee on Tuesday morning.

As Hern noted in his social media post, Jordan’s was the second GOP speaker candidacy to go up in flames over the past two weeks.

The conference had initially designated House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., as the nominee, but resistance to his candidacy from Jordan supporters and others ultimately forced him to withdraw from the race.

Scalise said Friday that he would not make another go at the speakership.

Jordan’s real downfall — his third balloting defeat — came shortly before noon on Friday, a day on which he needed a majority of only 215 votes to become speaker due to the absence of two Democratic members.

Instead of gaining ground, however, some 25 House Republicans voted against Jordan, three more than opposed him in the vote on Wednesday and five more than on the first speaker roll call on Tuesday. 

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue