The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to reconvene Thursday and make another attempt to elect a speaker, after Republican congressman Jim Jordan, a staunch ally of former president Donald Trump, lost his second bid to claim the speaker’s gavel Wednesday.
Jordan, a nine-term lawmaker from the midwestern state of Ohio, won 199 votes in Wednesday’s vote, well short of the 217-vote majority he needs to be elected speaker.
Twenty-two of his Republican colleagues voted for other lawmakers in the contest, an increase of two from the first round of voting on Tuesday.
Jordan also trailed Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who won the votes of all 212 Democrats, although Jeffries is highly unlikely to become speaker of the chamber, in which Republicans have a slim majority.
Jordan has not dropped his effort to become speaker and told reporters he expects another vote in the House Thursday afternoon.
Supporters of Jordan have pressured opposing lawmakers on social media to fall in line and approve the Ohio representative as speaker. One Republican congresswoman, Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, reported receiving “credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls” after she voted against Jordan in Wednesday’s vote.
Jordan later wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “no American should accost another for their beliefs.”
“We condemn all threats against our colleagues and it is imperative that we come together,” he added. “Stop. It’s abhorrent.”
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