Jordan, Scalise battle to the wire for Speakership

House Republicans will huddle Wednesday morning aiming to nominate a new Speaker to take to the House floor, with the choice of two powerhouses in the GOP conference: Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

The two men are well liked in the conference and have portrayed themselves as unifiers, focused on border issues and spending.

“They both have different strengths. They both bring unique attributes. Their policy differences are probably zero,” said Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), who is supporting Scalise.

Each would bring a distinctly different style to the top slot in the House — but both carry risks that are prompting hesitation among some members.

It is a close race, opening the door to a wild-card third option if GOP members cannot coalesce around Jordan or Scalise — or an attempted resurrection of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

And bitterness about the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to oust McCarthy remains. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) said he will not vote for anyone for Speaker until he sees a plan on how to avoid the ousted Speaker situation again.

The dynamics come as lawmakers are racing the clock to elect a new Speaker and restart legislative business in the chamber, with members concerned that the House is unable to formally support Israel in the wake of Hamas’s deadly attack.

McCarthy, who was ousted as Speaker last week, did not shoot down the prospect of returning to the post if the conference is deadlocked when asked multiple times this week. Several moderate members have indicated they may nominate and vote for him, further complicating the race.

For instance, Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) has said he will only vote for McCarthy, unless the former Speaker definitively takes himself out of the running.

But on Tuesday evening, McCarthy said he had discouraged members from doing so. 

“I asked the members in there not to nominate me,” McCarthy said.

Neither Scalise nor Jordan has pulled ahead as a front-runner, and McCarthy does not have a clear path back to the gavel, leaving lawmakers unsure of who will lead the House when all is said and done — and when exactly that process will wrap up.

Scalise has the advantage of a staff with years of experience in leadership and that knows how to run a leadership race. And he is also a stronger fundraiser than Jordan, which has helped him build goodwill across the conference.

Members in support of Scalise, including Texas Reps. Tony Gonzales and Pfluger, have pointed to his work on the two major policy bills that the House GOP passed this year: the H.R. 1 Lower Energy Costs Act and the H.R. 2 Secure the Border Act.

A tested, longtime leader should be speedily chosen and elected, particularly in light of the crises across the globe, Scalise’s supporters say.

“We don’t have days or weeks. You’re seeing the urgency of what’s happening across the globe,” Gonzales said. “What happens next? No one saw this Hamas attack in Israel.”

But Scalise’s August diagnosis of multiple myeloma, described as a “very treatable” blood cancer, has some members hesitating.

“I was honest with Scalise. I think his health is an issue. I don’t want somebody that is gonna deteriorate in the job,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said Monday evening. “This is a tough job. You’ve got to be everywhere.”

But Scalise has said that his doctors have cleared him to run for the spot, and that his treatment has gone “phenomenally well.” Gonzales also noted that Scalise’s wife, Jennifer, signed off on the bid.

“Jennifer is the one that has said, ‘I wouldn’t allow him to do this if he wasn’t healthy enough to do this,’” Gonzales said. “When his wife says, ‘We’re in this to win this’ — that’s all I needed to know.”

Jordan, on the other hand, comes to the table with deep conservative bona fides that resonate with the right flank of the party. 

The Ohio Republican was the first chairman of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus, a group of roughly three dozen hard-line lawmakers that has exerted outsized influence in this Congress.

He was once a thorn in the side of GOP leaders, prodding them to take more aggressively conservative stances and even challenging McCarthy for the GOP’s top spot in 2018. But as he and the right flank gained more power, Jordan became more of an ally of party leadership.

Now, Jordan is no longer a gadfly. As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, he is front and center in congressional investigations into the Biden administration, Hunter Biden and various probes focused on former President Trump.

His supporters see the fast-talking, confrontational Ohioan as the person who can unite the conference at its current juncture.

“[He] has the relationships with moderates, he has relationships with the ultraconservatives and everyone in between,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) said Tuesday.

Others point to his pugnacious style.

“How many rounds was it in ‘Rocky?’” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), a Jordan supporter, asked reporters Monday. “Look, you’re talking about some tough characters. Jim Jordan was an all-state champion wrestler, he can go the equivalent of 15 rounds. I’m not sure how they do rounds in wrestling, but he’s capable of doing whatever it takes.”

But while Jordan’s history as a political flamethrower endears him to fellow hard-line conservatives, it could pose problems for him in locking up support with moderates. Privately, GOP members wonder how a Speaker Jordan would be more helpful or harmful to the members in toss-up districts who are critical to securing — and keeping — the Republican majority.

“I’m as real as they come — yes it’s a conversation,” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), who represents a district President Biden won in 2020, said when asked about the next Speaker being attentive to his district and Jordan’s firebrand background.

D’Esposito said he and Reps. Nick Lalota (R-N.Y.) and Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) — two other moderate Republicans — are “sticking together” amid the Speaker showdown but had not endorsed a candidate as of Tuesday afternoon.

But another Biden-district Republican brushed aside concerns regarding Jordan’s history as a hard-liner, noting that they could help improve their standing with ultraconservatives in the district.

“Seventy percent of the people I represent don’t know who the Speaker is, let alone care. 15 percent are Democrats who will never support anybody I support and will hate them. 15 percent are right-wing MAGA Republicans who frankly don’t necessarily trust members like me,” the Biden-district Republican said. “Voting for Jim Jordan is not insurmountable because he buttresses us with those voters.”