(NewsNation) — Rep. Jim Jordan failed for a second time to gain enough votes from Republicans in order to secure the House speaker role.
As the path forward remains unclear for Jordan, Republican Congressman Mike Lawler of New York, who voted against Jordan twice, joined “The Hill on NewsNation” to weigh in.
“If Jim Jordan cannot build the consensus, he needs to step aside,” Lawler said.
There were 432 members of the House on Wednesday, so Jordan needed 217 votes, of which he received 199. In total, 22 Republicans voted against him — more than the 20 who did the previous day.
Lawler said he has talked with Jordan multiple times and had “very direct and frank conversations.”
While most Republicans were trying to elect Jordan, a number of GOP members held out, as some say the ally of former President Donald Trump is too extreme.
“Ultimately, if the consensus is there, we need to move forward,” Lawler said. “But it’s not there. And it’s not a function of me or any one of my colleagues.”
A number of Lawler’s GOP colleagues voted for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whose historic ouster two weeks ago is what led to the search for a new leader, while some supported House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
“The issue ahead is obviously building consensus,” Lawler said. “But as I’ve said repeatedly over the last two weeks, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise or Kevin McCarthy, if the folks in my conference who throughout the course of the year have undermined the majority by voting down rules, by voting against McCarthy, by moving to vacate the chair, if they don’t realize that they have to compromise within the conference, it’s very difficult to get to 218 on any operations, including aid to Ukraine.”
Despite these setbacks, Jordan’s spokesperson told NewsNation after the vote the embattled representative plans “to keep going.”
Lawler said Jordan has to move out of the way “for the good of the conference.”
“If you don’t have the votes, you have to move out of the way,” Lawler said. “And right now, we need to get back to work.”