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House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) failed to rally the 217 votes necessary to take up the gavel following the first round of voting over the new Speaker of the House.
The first-round results were 200 votes for Jordan and 212 for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). As expected, the Democrats voted as a bloc in favor of their leader. Twenty Republicans voted against Jordan, who could only afford to lose three Republican supporters in the narrowly divided House.
The House has been without a Speaker for two weeks after a group of hardline Republicans voted to remove Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) from the Speakership. Tuesday, six Republicans voted for McCarthy even though the former Speaker backed Jordan.
One Jordan ally described the situation as “much worse than expected.”