GOP’s Donalds says Jordan’s pressure campaign backfired in first vote

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said Tuesday that the GOP pressure campaign to elect Rep. Jim Jordan as Speaker backfired after the Ohio Republican failed to clinch the necessary votes on the first ballot. 

“I believe it was. I’ve talked to a couple of members where they felt that — that’s just not what they needed,” Donalds said on Fox News when asked if some GOP members were turned off by the online pressure campaign. “I don’t think that’s what we should be doing right now.”

“I think some of the pressure campaigns have backfired,” he said. “They have not worked. And so, I think that right now under the leadership of Jim Jordan, I would request that people just take a break, take a pause, let the members work and figure this out amongst ourselves so we can elect Jim Jordan as Speaker, and then we can get back to the work that we have to do.”

Jordan’s allies attempted to whip up support for the latest Speaker nominee over the weekend, but their efforts ultimately failed on the first ballot after he only reached 200 votes. 

Donalds also told reporters earlier Tuesday that some of the outside pressure was to Jordan’s “detriment,” adding that he hopes the House could work through it to “get this business done.”

“Listen, in any organization, you or any team or any locker room, you have to deal with everybody differently. You can’t have the same style with everybody because everybody responds to different things. And you have to understand that and know that,” Donalds said when asked about outside pressure from “email mobs” and “Twitter mobs.”

He is not the only Republican to criticize the tactics. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the online pressure campaign is the “dumbest way” to support Jordan for Speaker.

“That is the dumbest way to support Jordan, and I’m supporting Jordan. I’m going to vote for Jordan. And as somebody who wants Jim Jordan, the dumbest thing you can do is to continue pissing off those people and entrench them,” he said.