USA: Election for chief position in the US Parliament: Jordan loses again

After two inconclusive rounds of voting to fill a powerful top position in the US Parliament, the deadlock in the House of Representatives continues. The Republican Jim Jordan also failed in the election for chairman of the Chamber of Congress in the second attempt. Due to dissenting votes from his own group, the confidant of former US President Donald Trump once again missed the necessary majority in Wednesday’s vote. The House of Representatives is still largely politically paralyzed for the time being. Because until a new chairman is appointed, legislative work there is largely idle.

Jordan had already failed to obtain the required number of votes in the parliamentary chamber in the first round of voting on Tuesday. In the vote on Wednesday, the 59-year-old received 199 votes from his group, one vote less than the day before. It is unclear whether he will be able to win enough skeptics from within his own ranks to his side.

The Republicans only have a slim majority in the House of Representatives. The parliamentary group currently has 221 seats in the parliamentary chamber, while US President Joe Biden’s Democrats have 212 seats. Jordan can therefore only afford very few deviations. He cannot count on support from the Democratic ranks.

The hardliner Jordan

The representative from Ohio belongs to the right-wing fringe of the group and has been a loyal Trump loyalist for years. He was part of the defense team in Trump’s first impeachment trial and also stood by his side in the second impeachment trial against the then president because of the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. Jordan now heads the influential Judiciary Committee, which is also investigating President Biden.

Not long ago it seemed unthinkable that a hardliner like Jordan could even be considered for the powerful post at the head of the parliamentary chamber. The chairman of the House of Representatives comes third in the US ranking after the president and his vice president. Jordan’s rise from right-wing rebel on the outer fringes of his party to official candidate for the most powerful role in the chamber of Congress shows how far the Republican faction has moved to the right and the influence Trump and his like-minded people have on the party.

The broken faction

The Republican faction is extremely fragmented and difficult to bring to a common denominator. McCarthy only made it to the chairmanship in the 15th ballot in January. After he was voted out, the group initially selected the right-wing conservative Steve Scalise as McCarthy’s possible successor. But Scalise was unable to secure the necessary majority within his own ranks and withdrew his candidacy before a vote in the plenary session.

The Republicans’ wrangling and the paralysis of Parliament are coming at a bad time – and not just for the USA – given the major international conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, which the US Parliament should actually be dealing with. The House of Representatives has to decide, among other things, on further aid for Kiev, as well as on a federal budget as a whole. For now, only a transitional budget has been agreed until mid-November, which does not include any support for Ukraine.

The plan B

For now, Republican Patrick McHenry is acting as interim leader in the House of Representatives. However, it is actually only intended for formal tasks, such as organizing the election of a long-term chairman. Several MPs discussed giving McHenry additional powers for a limited period of time if the search for McCarthy’s successor dragged on. This is intended to enable legislative work and prevent government business from coming to a standstill in mid-November, known as a “shutdown,” if a new federal budget has not been approved by then. However, it remains to be seen whether this idea would actually gain a majority.