The House remains paralyzed with no end in sight to the Republican leadership crisis as GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio continues his bid for speaker despite facing stiff resistance.
The Ohio Republican, who has made a name for himself as a hardline conservative agitator, has so far vowed to stay in the race despite two failed votes for the gavel. The House could hold a third vote for speaker as soon as Thursday afternoon, though no vote has been officially scheduled yet.
Tensions are rising among House Republicans as pressure grows to find a way to resolve the standoff. In a sign of growing opposition to his candidacy, Jordan fared worse in a second round of voting on Wednesday than he had in the first vote a day earlier.
After Wednesday’s failed speaker vote, a number of Republicans who oppose Jordan made clear they won’t be swayed and some expressed outrage over what they described as a pressure campaign against them by Jordan allies.
The House remains effectively frozen as Republicans have failed to coalesce around a viable alternative to Kevin McCarthy after the former speaker was ousted in a historic vote by a group of conservative hardliners.
Now, more moderate and mainstream Republicans are the ones digging in, with some concerned over the prospect of a conservative firebrand like Jordan as speaker and others angry over the role hardliners played in pushing out McCarthy and then opposing House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s bid for speaker.
As it increasingly looks uncertain that any candidate can secure the 217 votes to win the gavel, some Republicans have been pushing to expand the powers of the interim speaker, GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina. But such a move would be controversial and has divided Republicans.
Some of Jordan’s opponents have predicted that the Ohio Republican will lose even more…
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