Republican-led US House rejects Trump ally Jim Jordan for speaker on first vote
- The right-wing lawmaker then postponed a second vote, raising questions about his ability to convince holdouts in his own party to support him
- Jordan won only 200 ballots in the first round, short of the 217 needed, as 20 of his fellow Republicans voted against him
Combative right-wing Republican Jim Jordan postponed a second vote for speaker of the US House of Representatives on Tuesday after coming up short in the first vote, raising questions about his prospects for seizing the top job.
The Ohio lawmaker said the House would vote in a second round at 11am on Wednesday.
Jordan, a close ally of former US president Donald Trump, won 200 votes, short of the 217 needed to win the job, in a first vote on Tuesday afternoon as 20 of his fellow Republicans voted against him. All 212 Democrats voted for their leader, Hakeem Jeffries.
The loss means that for now the House remains leaderless, as it has been since a handful of Republican insurgents engineered Kevin McCarthy’s ousting as speaker two weeks ago.
That has left Congress unable to respond to wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, with just a month to go before the US government faces another partial shutdown deadline.
