“Bullying don't work,' said Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican centrist who has led the opposition to Jordan's nomination.
But as the pressure campaign devolved this week into death threats against lawmakers and their families, something unexpected happened: Positions hardened, and a ragtag coalition of roughly 20 House Republicans rose up to deny Jordan the speakership."Bullying don't work," said Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican centrist who has led the opposition to Jordan's nomination.
It's just the latest twist in the contentious intra-party feud that has consumed House Republicans since themore than two weeks ago. Hopelessly divided, Republicans have been arguing for weeks over how to mend their fractured majority. The death threats have only worsened the tension, with lawmakers feeling their colleagues are partially to blame for the outpouring of bile.
As Republicans choose their next speaker, however, the just-say-no tactic is coming from new corners of the Republican conference: moderate GOP lawmakers who represent politically purple congressional districts, senior members of the House Appropriations Committee, and loyalists to GOP leadership figures like McCarthy and Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
Meanwhile, Jordan tried to win over more moderate Republicans by casting himself as a unifier who would listen to their concerns. He told his fellow Republicans he would not take the speaker vote to the House floor unless he had secured 217 of their votes. The US Capitol is seen as the sun sets in Washington, DC, on October 19, 2023. Republicans lurched further into disarray October 19, 2023 as their nominee to lead the US House of Representatives looked incapable of securing the gavel and a plan to in"I don’t think any of these 20 have the stomach for forcing that vote over and over," Massie said.
Jordan, for his part, has tried to stop the threats and pressure. After Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks said in a statement that she had received "credible death threats" after voting against him Wednesday, Jordan condemned the threats and called for unity.But colleagues have watched for years as Jordan and his allies denounced their legislative work while playing to the party's base. They were unmoved.
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