Rep. Jim Jordan's speaker bid: Are Republicans damned either way?

After days spent trying to whip Republican votes to support his uphill bid to become the next speaker of the House of Representatives, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan this weekend made his case to the American public, claiming on X, formerly Twitter, that the nation "cannot afford us attacking each other." Chaos within the GOP caucus notwithstanding, Jordan insisted "the differences between Republicans and Democrats in the House far outweigh our differences in the Republican Conference."

Jordan's appeal to a sense of party unity is an understandable move for a man hoping to rein in — and reign over — a fractious GOP that's brought Washington to a virtual standstill. While exact Republican numbers are for now unclear, there are "upwards of 10 lawmakers firmly in the 'Never Jordan' camp" according to Punchbowl News.  That's enough for Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) to predict to Roll Call that, with Jordan's math looking "not good," the party will ultimately have to find someone "who can truly unify us" — if such a figure within the GOP even exists. 

For now, Jordan and his allies are intent on moving forward with a full floor vote for his speaker's bid to force wavering Republicans to go on the record one way or another. And herein lies a dilemma for the GOP: With each unsuccessful at-bat for an aspiring speaker, the party further affirms a sense of internal disorder and discord which undercuts their election-year pitch to voters that they should be trusted with governing. At the same time, if Jordan's gambit is successful and he does manage to flip enough naysayers to secure the speakership, some critics contend it could place the GOP in equally dire straits. 

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What the commentators said

Citing his support for former President Donald Trump's efforts to subvert the 2020 election, former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney — long one of Trump's most pointed
critics from the right — argued that selecting Jordan as their speaker nominee would mean Republicans are "abandoning the Constitution." Moreover, Cheney wrote on X, Republicans would ultimately "lose the House majority and they’ll deserve to."

Even Jordan supporters worry his camp's aggressive posturing to earn support within the caucus could end up damaging the party in the long term. The public pressure campaign to flip votes in his favor is "the dumbest way to support Jordan" Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) told CNN's Jake Tapper this weekend. Highlighting his personal support for Jordan's bid, Crenshaw explained that the "dumbest thing you can do is to continue pissing off [potential supporters[ and entrench them" against Jordan. Sharing a message from an unidentified Fox News producer to pressure House Republicans to support Jordan, Axios' Juliegrace Brufke quoted one lawmaker who called the effort "counterproductive."

With Jordan's camp warning members of Congress that Trump will "exact revenge on those who don’t vote yes," Punchbowl pointed out that Jordan is explicitly tying the fate of his party's House caucus "with a presidential candidate as never before" in what is ultimately "a huge gamble." 

Still, that gamble may ultimately pay off for Jordan, who has begun earning endorsements from some of "his most vocal opponents," Roll Call reported. The prospect that a "deal will have to be done," as voiced by Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) on Face The Nation this weekend, was enough to send Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) into Jordan's camp, just one week after she'd denounced his "disgraceful, ungracious" speech upon losing the caucus' initial vote of support to Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.). Now, Wagner wrote on X, "too much is at stake to hand control of the House over to radical liberal Democrats."

What next? 

All eyes are on Tuesday's expected floor vote, in which Jordan's "stick-and-carrot approach" will be put to the test, according to The Dispatch. Noting that the disruptions in the House have largely been the product of "hardliners, not the pragmatists, who have taken advantage of the personal power to individual members afforded by the GOP’s razor-thin majority," the outlet mused that it's not hard to imagine moderates using it to break Jordan's hard right conservative coalition this time around. 

Meanwhile, absent a permanent speaker, some Democratic lawmakers have pushed forward an effort to "expand the Speaker Pro Tempore's authorities" for now, Axios reported.