Divided G.O.P. Nominates Jordan for Speaker, Elevating a Hard-Right Figure
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House Republicans on Friday nominated Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the hard-right Republican and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to be their next speaker, after he turned back a challenge from a mainstream conservative.
By a vote of 124 to 81, Mr. Jordan defeated Representative Austin Scott of Georgia, an ally of the ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who had decided just hours earlier to seek the nomination. Mr. Scott had effectively put himself forward as a protest candidate against Mr. Jordan.
But while Mr. Jordan won the contest, his quest for the speakership still faced serious challenges after several mainstream Republicans said they would not support him. It was a continuation of the bitter party infighting that has broken out in recent days, paralyzing the House.
The bid by Mr. Jordan, the co-founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and a favorite of former President Donald J. Trump’s, came a little over a week after a faction of his supporters forced out Mr. McCarthy and then refused to back the party’s chosen successor for the post, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who abruptly withdrew on Thursday.
Representative Ann Wagner of Missouri called Mr. Jordan’s candidacy a “nonstarter.” Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, who represents a district won by President Biden, said lawmakers were worried about caving to the whims of the hard-right members who had refused to back Mr. Scalise.
“The fact is: If you reward bad behavior, you’re going to get more of it,” Mr. Bacon said.
Should Mr. Jordan succeed in drawing a majority on the House floor, he would be second in line to the presidency, capping a remarkable rise for a rabble-rousing Republican popular with the party’s far-right base. His combative style and distaste for compromise has tormented past G.O.P. speakers.
Mr. Scalise had surpassed Mr. Jordan during an internal party contest on Wednesday by just 14 votes. But rather than consolidating his narrow base of backers, Mr. Scalise almost immediately began hemorrhaging supporters, as lawmakers from several factions said they did not intend to fall into line behind him. He pulled out of the race about 30 hours later.
Mr. Jordan and his supporters hoped to avoid a similar fate, but it was not clear whether he would be any more successful in uniting the party.
Representative Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, a supporter of Mr. Jordan’s, acknowledged that there were Republicans who would not support him “because they don’t want to reward that behavior.”
But he argued that Mr. Jordan should not be judged by the behavior of his most ardent backers and warned that winning a majority would be difficult for any Republican.
“I abundantly don’t think anybody has 217,” Mr. Armstrong said.
Some members, foreseeing a fight that could drag on for weeks, were also discussing how they might give Representative Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina — the temporary speaker whose role is primarily to hold an election for a speaker — more power to carry out the chamber’s work until the conflict could be resolved.
Annie Karni, Catie Edmondson and Karoun Demirjian contributed reporting.
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