Jim Jordan takes speaker vote to the House floor in bid to end GOP leadership vacuum

Conservative Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio is bringing the House back to the floor Tuesday to vote on whether he will succeed ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy and finally end the chamber’s prolonged paralysis amid deep GOP divisions.

Jordan is currently short of the votes he needs to be elected speaker, even after the Ohio Republican picked up key support from holdouts on Monday. Jordan’s allies are bullish that the Ohio Republican can eventually corral the 217 votes he needs to be elected speaker, but it’s not clear whether Jordan can ultimately be the one who unifies the fractured House Republican conference.

As of Tuesday morning, six Republicans said they were opposed to Jordan, while three more were leaning against him.

The exact number of votes Jordan can lose is a moving target. If all members are voting, Jordan can only afford to lose four Republicans. But Florida Rep. Gus Bilirakis will be away from the Capitol on Tuesday for his mother-in-law’s funeral, meaning Jordan can now only lose three GOP votes, instead of four, if all Democrats are present. This is a temporary drop until the Florida Republican returns, however, and Bilirakis will arrive back in Washington as soon as Tuesday evening, his office told CNN.

The slim margin is what led to McCarthy’s removal at the hands of a band of eight GOP rebels – and a small group of House Republicans unhappy with Jordan could block his ascension, too.

But Jordan and his allies have made significant headway over the past several days, with the Ohio Republican pitching skeptical lawmakers one on one – and his allies outside Congress attacking the holdouts and threatening political consequences if they stand against a favorite of the Trump-aligned GOP base.