Clap for the Trump candidate in the US Congress! The Republican Jim Jordan failed in the election for chairman at the first attempt.
Due to dissenting votes from his own group, the confidant of former US President Donald Trump did not achieve the necessary majority in Tuesday’s vote.
Jordan was chosen as a candidate by his parliamentary group behind closed doors on Friday – but the vote there was extremely close. The Trump loyalist was initially not considered capable of gaining a majority, but in the past few days he has attracted some opponents to his side.
At first it wasn’t enough for a majority. 20 party colleagues opposed him in the vote on Tuesday: The arch-conservative US Republican clearly missed the required majority of 217 votes in a vote in the Congress Chamber on Tuesday with 200 votes.
Jordan with former US President Donald Trump (77) during the 2018 election campaign
But Jordan could try to assert himself in further rounds of elections.
McCarthy, who was ousted two weeks ago, needed 15 rounds to win the state’s third-highest office when he was elected in January. He was ousted as the chamber’s first leader in U.S. history just nine months later in a rebellion by his party’s far-right wing.
In the chaotic search for a successor, Trump-backed Jordan was nominated by the Republican faction last Friday. The day before, Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who was initially nominated by the group, threw in the towel after it became clear that he would miss the necessary majority in the plenary session.
Failure was already on the horizon
A lack of a majority had also become apparent in Jordan in the run-up to the vote on Tuesday. Many moderate Republicans have strong reservations about the current chairman of the influential House Judiciary Committee, who is known for sharply right-wing positions and an aggressive political style.
► The Republican faction currently has 221 seats in the parliamentary chamber, the Democrats have 212 seats. Jordan would have needed 217 votes for a majority. So he could only afford four dissidents in his own ranks – but 20 party colleagues opposed him.
Jordan could not count on votes from US President Joe Biden’s Democrats in the vote.
The dispute among the Republicans has far-reaching consequences: without a chairman, the House of Representatives is largely paralyzed. This means, among other things, that Congress cannot decide on any further military aid for Israel, which is attacked by the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas, or Ukraine, which is attacked by Russia. The USA is also threatened with a so-called shutdown in mid-November without a solution to the budget dispute.