Jordan gets support from Kean, Smith, Van Drew – but falls short of speakership

In the vote for Speaker of the House of Representatives today, New Jersey GOP Reps. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), Chris Smith (R-Manchester), and Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) all voted for House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) – but Jordan still fell more than a dozen votes short of the speakership.

Under House rules, speaker candidates need to receive a majority of all present House members; Jordan received 200 votes, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) received 212, and 20 House Republicans defected and voted for other candidates. Jordan’s dreams of the speakership now rest on convincing the vast majority of the renegade Republicans to vote for him on a later ballot.

The vote comes two weeks after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) was ousted, requiring the election of a new speaker. Jordan, a former leader of the House Freedom Caucus, was nominated by the Republican caucus after an extended process that took two weeks and involved two different internal caucus votes.

In those internal votes, Van Drew supported Jordan both times, while Smith supported House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) in the first GOP vote and switched to Jordan on the second, after Scalise had dropped out of the race.

Kean, meanwhile, never revealed how he voted in either secret-ballot contest, and it only became clear earlier today that he intended to vote for Jordan. The vote could be a politically complicated one for Kean, who represents one of the most competitive congressional districts in the country and who is already being attacked by his Democratic rivals over his vote for the right-wing Jordan.

(New Jersey nine House Democrats, alongside the entire Democratic caucus, all supported Jeffries.)

It’s not clear what will happen now. The House is now in recess; Jordan will need to devote his efforts to flipping enough votes to win the gavel on a second ballot – but it remains to be seen whether any of the defectors, many of whom hail from swing districts, will be amenable to supporting him.

Van Drew said that despite today’s setback, he remains committed to Jordan (as long as Jordan remains the official GOP speaker nominee), and that he expects Jordan to initiate another floor vote soon, possibly today.

“It is frustrating. However, we’ve just got to keep our eye on the ball,” Van Drew said. “The real deal here is that Jim’s going to talk to the people that have concerns … and we are going to have at least another vote.”

This story was updated at 2:36 p.m. with comment from Van Drew.