Jim Jordan listens to nomination speeches for Speaker of the House as the House of Representatives prepares to vote on a new Speaker at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on Oct. 17.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Combative right-wing Republican Jim Jordan postponed a second vote for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday after coming up short in the first vote, raising questions about his prospects for seizing the top job.
The Ohio lawmaker said the House would vote in a second round at 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
Mr. Jordan, a close ally of former president Donald Trump, won 200 votes, short of the 217 needed to win the job, in a first vote on Tuesday afternoon as 20 of his fellow Republican voted against him. All 212 Democrats voted for their leader, Hakeem Jeffries.
The loss means that for now the House remains leaderless, as it has been since a handful of Republican insurgents engineered Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as speaker two weeks ago. That has left Congress unable to respond to wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, with just a month to go before the U.S. government faces another partial shutdown deadline.
Mr. Jordan’s office had said to expect a second vote on Tuesday, but postponed action after several hours of closed-door meetings with fellow Republicans. It was not clear whether he would pick up more support or see his opposition grow. Mr. McCarthy never got less than 200 votes in 15 rounds over four days in January.
“We’re making progress. I feel good about it,” Mr. Jordan told reporters. “We’re gonna keep going.”
If Mr. Jordan prevails, a conservative who has spent years fighting with leaders of his own party could end up in one of the most powerful jobs in Washington, putting him second in line for the presidency behind the vice-president.
Republicans did not nominate another candidate, but that did not stop his opponents from voting for someone else. Many of them are moderates who represent politically competitive districts, while others specialize in negotiating the complex spending bills that keep the U.S. government running, deals that typically require a willingness to compromise.
Seven Republicans voted for Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican whose own bid for speaker fell apart last week, and six voted for Mr. McCarthy. Three Republicans voted for Lee Zeldin, who retired from Congress in January, while Republican Representatives Tom Cole, Tom Emmer, Thomas Massie and Mike Garcia got one vote each.
Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Scalise both voted for Mr. Jordan.
Several Republicans from the New York area said they voted against Mr. Jordan because he opposed benefits for survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as well as tax policies and disaster aid that would help their residents.
Others objected to high-pressure tactics to get them to fall in line. “I will not be pressured or intimidated,” said Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, who voted for Mr. Scalise.
Representative Ken Buck said he was concerned that Mr. Jordan has still not acknowledged that Mr. Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Democratic President Joe Biden.
Mr. Jordan was a “significant player” in efforts to overturn Mr. Trump’s election defeat, a congressional investigation found.
Republicans control the House by a narrow 221-212 margin, giving them little room for error on divisive votes like this one.
After the vote, Mr. Jordan talked with lawmakers who had voted against him and met privately with Mr. Scalise.
New Republican challengers could emerge if Mr. Jordan does not pick up support. Potential candidates include Mr. Emmer, the No. 3 House Republican, and Patrick McHenry, who is temporarily filling the speaker’s chair. Mr. Jeffries, the Democratic leader, has called for a bipartisan compromise.
Mr. Jordan’s supporters said he would be an effective advocate for spending cuts and other Republican priorities in negotiations with Mr. Biden and the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.
“He is a patriot, an America First warrior who wins the toughest of fights,” Republican Representative Elise Stefanik said as she nominated Jordan for speaker on the House floor.
Democrats have painted him as an extremist who would take orders from Mr. Trump.
Democratic Representative Pete Aguilar said on the House floor that Mr. Jordan’s election would show the U.S.’ enemies that “the very people who seek to undermine democracy are rewarded with positions of immense power. We are talking about someone who has spent their entire career trying to hold our country back.”
A fixture on conservative media outlets, Mr. Jordan has used his perch as chair of the House Judiciary Committee to help lead an impeachment inquiry into Mr. Biden that Democrats decry as baseless.
He helped found the House Freedom Caucus, which then-Speaker John Boehner dubbed “legislative terrorists” before members of that group pressured him to retire. Mr. Jordan was an architect of government shutdowns in 2013 and 2018.
Before entering politics, Mr. Jordan served as a wrestling coach at Ohio State University. Former students in 2018 accused him of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse of college wrestlers by the wrestling team’s doctor. He denied those allegations and a university investigation found no hard evidence that he knew of the abuse.