Jordan Tries to Stir GOP Rage Against Republicans in His Way

Rep. Jim Jordan is trying to win the House speakership by bullying Republican members who won't vote for him, a strategy denounced Sunday by one supporter. Jordan won his party's nomination for the post on Friday but received nowhere near the number of votes required to elect him in a vote by the full House. Since then, his supporters have used social media and media appearances to attack the 60 or so members who haven't promised him their support, urging voters to turn their political wrath on the holdouts, the New York Times reports.

One GOP member backing Jordan used his appearance Sunday to blast the strategy as self-defeating, per Politico. "That is the dumbest way to support Jordan," Rep. Dan Crenshaw said on CNN's State of the Union. "As someone who wants Jim Jordan, the dumbest thing you can do is to continue pissing off those people," he added. The House returns to session on Monday, and Jordan has said he wants the House to vote on his nomination Tuesday. He'll need 217 votes, meaning he can lose only a few GOP members. A senior Republican opposed to Jordan told CNN he counts about 40 members still planning to vote against the nomination. The most votes Jordan got in closed GOP sessions Friday was 152, per the Wall Street Journal.

Several Jordan backers have posted the phone numbers of holdouts online. "You want to explain to your voters why you blocked Jordan?" Florida Rep.Anna Paulina Luna wrote on X. "Then bring it." Such Republican-on-Republican pressure has worked at times for Donald Trump, who supports Jordan, but the Times points out it's part of what put Republicans in this situation, by fielding House candidates popular with the Trump base but unable to win in competitive districts. Crenshaw pointed out that such tactics couldn't save Kevin McCarthy's speakership. "Everybody's got to grow up, get it together," Crenshaw said. "If there's differences, let's sort them out." (More Jim Jordan stories.)