WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — The House Republican conference has voted to drop Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as its speaker nominee after a third defeat Friday, according to two GOP sources. The path toward electing a speaker is no clearer now than when Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was unexpectedly ousted from the position two weeks ago.
“Jim Jordan is out of the race,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. “We’re supposed to come back to a candidate forum on Monday at 6:30.”
McCarthy slammed House Republicans who initiated the process of removing him as speaker.
“I’ve never seen this amount of damage done by just a few people for their own personalities,” said McCarthy. “It’s astonishing to me. We’re in a very bad position.”
Jordan was the only formal Republican candidate for the role but did not get enough votes to become speaker during the third vote Friday morning. There were 25 Republicans who voted against him.
He lost even more support among Republicans on Friday than he had during the week’s first two ballots; on Wednesday, 20 GOP House members voted against him, while on Thursday, he lost 22 of them.
Republicans, following the third vote, went to the conference room for a secret ballot to decide whether Jordan should keep trying to be speaker, Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, said.
Jordan lost that vote as well.
Addressing the media ahead of the House session, Jordan said the quickest way to help the American people is to elect a speaker.
“I think the American people are hungry for change,” Jordan, a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, said. “We have important work to do.”
Eight of the Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy, and who are being widely blamed by most of the party for dysfunction in the House, wrote a letter offering themselves to be censured, or even removed from the Republican conference altogether, if the party votes for Jordan.
“While we stand by our actions, it is our goal to proceed forward with our colleagues, our teammates, our fellow Republicans in a manner that embraces reconciliation,” the letter, sent by Reps. Andy Biggs, Matt Gaetz, Ken Buck, Bob Good, Tim Burchett, Nancy Mace, Eli Crane, and Matt Rosendale, said. “While we violated no rule of either the House or Republican conference, we understand some in the conference wish to remove us.”
McCarthy nominated Jordan for the speakership Friday, and in his speech, pushed back against a comment Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar of California made earlier this week about Jordan not passing a law in 16 years.
“Let me correct the record: Jim Jordan is an effective legislator,” McCarthy said.
Added McCarthy, with some heckling from other lawmakers: ”To legislate is about more than the name on the bill — it’s about reaching compromise and working long hours behind the scenes to get the job done.”
As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, McCarthy said, Jordan was able to help pass a number of bills — more than the “entire Democrat leadership team has in their collective 28 years in Congress.”
Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts gave the nominating speech for the Democrats’ choice for speaker, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, calling him someone who “will secure liberty, justice and opportunity for everyone.”
She described Jordan, on the other hand, as someone who would sow division.
“MAGA extremism is designed to divide, and it has broken the Republican Party,” Clark said. “Their nominee’s vision is a direct attack on the freedom and the rights of the American people.”
There were 427 House members present Friday, meaning Jordan needed 214 votes to become speaker.
Many in Congress view him as too extreme to be in that position. Some of his Republican colleagues even say they have received death threats for voting against Jordan.
Several of the holdouts point to their anger toward the conference’s first nominee for speaker, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., being forced to withdraw his candidacy after Jordan supporters refused to support him on the House floor, and they have also expressed anger at McCarthy’s ouster.
Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, a close Jordan ally, warned the public Thursday that “additional votes are expected through the weekend.”
Allies of Jordan — who was nominated for speaker last week and who first brought his bid to the floor Tuesday — argued that he deserves more time to make his case.
“Nobody in our conference can get to 217 on two rounds and three legislative days,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said. “So, I think he deserves more time.”
Jordan has vowed to stay in the speaker’s race, although he did back the idea of temporarily expanding Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry’s powers as the House looks for a more permanent solution.
But many Republicans have slammed this opinion.
“We should not go empowering a speaker pro tem for 90 days without doing our job to choose a speaker. It raises serious constitutional questions,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said.
The conference swatted down on Thursday a proposal to temporarily empower McHenry, which was viewed by many as a last-ditch way to resume business in the House as the speaker race continues behind the scenes.
“This conference is absolutely broken, and the reason we’re broken is because Republicans worked with Democrats and put us here — it’s outrageous,” Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said.
The Hill contributed to this report.