Rep. Jordan fails to unite Republicans in first speaker vote

The U.S. House of Representatives held the first round of voting Tuesday to elect a new speaker, nearly two weeks after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out. Republican nominee Jim Jordan of Ohio received 200 votes, while the Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries received 212. Over a dozen representatives voted for members who were not nominees, including Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Thomas Emmer, and McCarthy. Republicans hold a thin majority in the House, and Jordan needs almost all of his party’s votes to win the speaker’s gavel.

What comes next? Representatives will continue voting until a majority of the House supports one candidate. There are 433 representatives with two vacant seats, meaning a candidate needs at least 217 votes to secure a majority vote if all members are present. McCarthy was elected after 15 rounds of voting across four days this past January. After Tuesday's vote, the former speaker defended Jordan, saying he had “just as many votes as I had on the first round.”

Dig deeper: Read Leo Briceno and Carolina Lumetta’s report in The Stew on the path forward after McCarthy’s removal.