Jim Jordan pulls back
When Jim Jordan lost the first vote for Speaker of the House this morning and then failed to immediately hold a second vote, it meant that the first round vote against him wasn’t just some symbolic thing. There were actual holdouts against Jordan who had no intention of pivoting to him on the second ballot.
Sure enough, now Jordan and his allies have announced that there won’t be a second round of voting today. Instead it’ll (supposedly) take place at 11am eastern time tomorrow. In other words Jordan is pulling back, in the hope that he can use the rest of the day and the night to pressure more House Republicans into voting for him.
It’s still hard to predict which way this will go. But as of right now Jim Jordan doesn’t have the votes to win in the second round, or else the second round would have taken place today. We’ll see if tomorrow morning’s supposed vote even happens. If it does, and Jordan loses again, it would likely mean the end of his candidacy.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report