The next vote on the speakership bid of Rep Jim Jordan will be held today – Wednesday (18 October) – at 11am ET, the GOP nominee announced on Tuesday.
This comes after 20 Republicans voted against Mr Jordan in a first ballot that went worse than expected for the Ohioan. He can only afford to lose four votes.
Critics of Mr Jordan are pushing to torpedo his bid for the gavel once and for all. A number of those who voted for other candidates began to push for an immediate second vote while Mr Jordan huddled with allies on Tuesday afternoon.
“We need to bring this to the floor ASAP and get to the work of the American people,” Rep Steve Womack of Arkansas wrote on X.
The first vote comes as the House marks two weeks since Rep Matt Gaetz filed a motion to vacate, which led to seven other Republicans and every Democratic representative present to depose Mr McCarthy.
Mr Jordan’s nomination came after House Majority Steve Scalise removed himself from the running despite the fact he beat Mr Jordan in an internal vote within the GOP conference. Mr Jordan had worked to win over many sceptics within his party and successfully flipped many of them.
But Mr Jordan needed to win 216 of the 220 Republican votes present in the chamber on Tuesday as one member of the GOP did not attend the vote.
Mr Lawler, a Republican who represents a district that voted for President Joe Biden, told The Independent that he cast his vote for Mr McCarthy because he did not believe Mr McCarthy should have been removed.
Rep Scott Perry, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus that Mr Jordan co-founded, told The Independent that Mr Jordan losing the first ballot was “predictable.”
“You remember January, right? It started out in essentially the same place,” Mr Perry said, referring to the 15 rounds of voting it took for Mr McCarthy to become speaker.
Many Republicans cast their votes for Mr McCarthy and Mr Scalise in protest of how they were treated. On Tuesday, Mr Bacon had protested how some conservatives had deposed Mr McCarthy and blocked Mr Scalise.
“So my main concern is, as an American, we believe in the rule of law and fairness,” Mr Bacon told reporters on Monday evening before a meeting among House Republicans. “And we had a small group of folks who broke our rules and got rid of Kevin and then a small group broke our rules and blocked Steve.”
Rep Victoria Spartz of Indiana chose to not back Mr Jordan in the first vote on Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning ahead of the second ballot, she wrote on X: “Appreciate many friendly calls, but understand your frustrations. Republicans must govern - not be talking heads on TV!”
She went on to lay out “two points – Jim is elected by members and accountable to members from very diverse districts, so coercion and intimidation is not a good idea”.
“Before you coronate Jim please assess if he was effective for you or for McCarthy as Judiciary Chair,” she added.
