Jim Jordan Loses First House Speaker Vote

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) fell 17 votes short of the House speakership in a Tuesday vote, but more votes are expected as the Republican seeks to attract holdouts in his party. 

The Details: Jordan received 200 votes, with 20 Republicans voting for other names like Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA); all 212 Democrats voted for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). 

For Context: The result was expected and echoed former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) confirmation in January, which took 15 rounds of voting to get Republican holdouts on board. While McCarthy’s Republican opponents came from the conservative Freedom Caucus, Jordan’s opponents include moderates and Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), who wants Jordan to take a stronger stance against former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims.

How the Media Covered It: Live coverage was common across the spectrum. Sensationalism was common; a Washington Examiner (Lean Right bias) headline said the floor vote descended into a “name-calling circus,” and a HuffPost (Left bias) headline said, “CHAOS REIGNS.” Fox News (Right bias) stood out by saying Jordan’s Republican opponents “voted with Democrats” and “joined all Democrats to shoot him down”; this could be misleading, since no Republican voted with Democrats for Hakeem Jeffries. Others at Fox seemed to back Jordan; host Brian Kilmeade reportedly called one Republican defector a “dumba**.” On the other hand, a CNN (Lean Left bias) analyst called Jordan “an election denier who is known for working to shut down the government rather than running it.” Update 10/17: Previous version described Ken Buck as a "moderate"; while Buck has opposed Trump's fraud claims and the Biden impeachment inquiry, he is also a member of the House Freedom Caucus. In light of that complexity, his description was edited slightly.