The House GOP caucus has officially nominated Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) for the Speakership over Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA).
An official tally for the caucus’ vote has not been released, so it is not known for sure at this time how many Republican representatives voted in Rep. Jordan’s favor.
According to reporting from NBC, however, sources have confirmed that Rep. Scott received 81 votes, while 124 members of the caucus opted to support Jordan.
Scott announced his intentions to run for Speaker of the House earlier this afternoon, posting on X:
“I have filed to be Speaker of the House. We are in Washington to legislate, and I want to lead a House that functions in the best interest of the American people.”
I have filed to be Speaker of the House. We are in Washington to legislate, and I want to lead a House that functions in the best interest of the American people.
— Rep. Austin Scott (@AustinScottGA08) October 13, 2023
After it became public that Jordan had won the intra-party vote, Scott once again took to X, calling for unity within the GOP caucus.
“I highly respect Jim Jordan. He is an asset to the Republican Party and our nominee for Speaker,” Scott wrote. “Our conference has spoken, and now we must unite behind Jordan so we can get Congress back to work.”
I highly respect Jim Jordan. He is an asset to the Republican Party and our nominee for Speaker. Our conference has spoken, and now we must unite behind Jordan so we can get Congress back to work.
— Rep. Austin Scott (@AustinScottGA08) October 13, 2023
Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) told reporters this afternoon that after their initial vote to nominate Jordan, the Republican conference moved to hold a second vote aimed at gauging the level of support Jordan could count on receiving in a chamber-wide vote.
Rep. Perry predicted that “protest” votes would be much less prevalent this time around.
“I bet you there’s going to be hardly any,” he said.
This exercise revealed that 152 members of the Republican caucus are evidently willing to vote in support of Jordan on the floor of the House, while only 55 members indicated that they would not. Just one member of the caucus voted “present.”
Former Speaker of the House Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told reporters that he “doesn’t see a problem” with the fact that he is still coming up short of the requisite 217 votes needed to secure the Speakership.
“I don’t see a problem with him now getting that,” Rep. McCarthy said. “I think that people have been here a long time. We’ve now elected a speaker designee. I think people go home be with their family and come back.”
As of now, the representatives have recessed for the weekend, and no chamber-wide votes for the Speaker of the House are expected until at least Monday evening.
It still remains to be seen whether Jordan will be able to garner enough support from his opposition within the Republican caucus to prevail as the next Speaker of the House when the vote eventually reaches the chamber floor.
