In the Friday vote for Republican House Speaker, Jim Jordan won 124 votes and Austin Scott gained 81 votes. Jordan now has a few days to talk to the roughly fifty Republican holdouts who do not support him. If it looks like Jordan can win the 217 floor votes needed, the GOP will likely vote next week.
After rising at the last minute, on behalf of the professionally Republican purchased UniParty wing (Sea Island donors), Georgia Representative Austin Scott has acquiesced and stated he will support Jim Jordan. It’s a little funny, because without a doubt Scott didn’t realize his Sea Island, Georgia, bona fides would be so quickly showcased.
From the inside, Jim Jordan (Ohio) is seen as part of the MAGA wing by the Republican apparatus.
(Via Politico) – […] GOP leadership sent members home for the weekend with plans to reassess on Monday after Jordan beat Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) with 124 votes, then picked up less than 30 more votes when Republicans were pressed whether they’d support him on the floor.
[…] Jordan “should be afforded 24 hours or the weekend or whatever … to see if he can get the votes and if he can’t get the votes, roll on,” Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) told reporters after the vote. The eventual speaker, he added, “may be somebody who is tolerable for everybody.”
Jordan, who told reporters he felt “good” after the vote, is expected to meet with holdouts as well as his backers over the weekend ahead of a potential Monday meeting to revisit whether he has enough support for a floor vote.
“I’ve been working it for 10 days,” Jordan added. “We’ll keep up. … We want to go to the floor as soon as possible, but we’re missing like eight members who aren’t in town. So we’ve got to wait for them to get back … I think we’re going to get 217.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a Jordan ally, said he expects a floor vote next week so that members can lay out where they stand before finally supporting a speaker.
Massie projected that “we go to the floor” when Jordan has closer to 180 votes.
”Which isn’t to 217 yet, but I believe what’s going to happen is – people in the first round may vote for McCarthy, they may vote for Scalise, Donald Trump may get a vote,” Massie said. “But after everybody gets that out of their system, you know, fulfills their commitments … by the second or third round, I think we’re going to be over 200.” (read more)
President Trump has endorsed Jim Jordan.
