The GOP-led House opted not to hold any more votes on Tuesday after Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) failed to win the speakership in the first and only ballot of the day.

Congressional aides had reportedly said they expected a second vote in the evening, but Jordan later said the next ballot would happen at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. The timing could still change.

“We are going to keep working,” Jordan told reporters after noting he had some “great discussions” with colleagues.

New — Jim Jordan tells us he’s going to stay in race and warns against cutting deal with Ds to reopen House. “No one in our conference wants to see a coalition government with the Democrats. We are going to keep working. We will get to the votes.”
He’s at risk of more R NO votes pic.twitter.com/Uso60IhiAr

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 17, 2023

Two hundred Republicans voted for Jordan in the House floor vote earlier on Tuesday while 20 GOP holdouts picked other people in their party. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), the nominee for the Democrats, got 212 votes. No one got a simple majority in the chamber that was needed to secure victory, leaving Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), who is serving as speaker pro tempore, to gavel the House into a recess.

The 20 Republicans who defied Jordan’s bid on Tuesday included members of the Armed Services Committee, members of the Appropriations Committee, and representatives from districts that went for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Their stated reasons for not backing Jordan have varied, with some citing political gripes and others indicating that the needs of their respective districts were not being addressed.

A couple of the GOP holdouts pushed for an immediate second ballot on Tuesday, which could have hurt Jordan’s bid if more Republicans voted against him. There had been some chatter that he could lose support without some “changes.” Meanwhile, Jordan has been working to rally more GOP members to his cause.

One of the meetings Jordan reportedly had was with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), who last week defeated Jordan to become the GOP’s nominee for speaker. Scalise dropped out on Thursday when he could not muster enough support to be elected speaker within the Republican conference. Jordan won the GOP nomination for speaker in his second try on Friday.

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There has been a sense of urgency to come to a resolution as it has now been two weeks since the House voted to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker, a possible government shutdown by mid-November looms, and members wanting to respond to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Over the past two weeks, members have floated alternative paths forward, including giving McHenry expanded powers to get legislative business done in the short term. Others have suggested a consensus candidate with bipartisan support.

It also remains possible another GOP candidate could gain momentum. GOP defectors voted on Tuesday for Scalise, McCarthy, and former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), among others, but none of them got to double-digit votes. The U.S. Constitution does not explicitly state that a speaker has to be a sitting member of the House.

U.S. House Speaker Election – First Ballot

Jeffries: 212
Jordan: 200
Scalise: 7
McCarthy: 6
Zeldin: 3
Garcia: 1
Emmer: 1
Cole: 1
Massie: 1

*217 votes needed to win the gavel*

No speaker elected. pic.twitter.com/xG1Uw9ZHHl

— CSPAN (@cspan) October 17, 2023

The GOP members who did not vote for Jordan on Tuesday included: House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-TX) and Reps. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Don Bacon (R-NE), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Jake Ellzey (R-TX), Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY), Tony Gonzales (R-TX), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Jenn Kiggans (R-VA), Nick LaLota (R-NY), Mike Lawler (R-NY), John Rutherford (R-FL), Mike Simpson (R-ID), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), Steve Womack (R-AR), John James (R-MI), Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), Ken Buck (R-CO), and Victoria Spartz (R-IN).

Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), who supports Jordan, missed the vote on Tuesday to attend a funeral but could be back at the U.S. Capitol by Wednesday. McCarthy and Scalise voted for Jordan, as did Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA), who challenged Jordan for the GOP nomination in the second round.

Jordan is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He had received an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential contest.

Billionaire Leslie Wexner’s nonprofit organization The Wexner Foundation is the latest to withdraw financial support from Harvard University over a student-group-led letter blaming Israel for the recent terrorist attacks perpetrated against Israeli civilians by Hamas terrorists.

The Victoria’s Secret Founder and his wife Abigail, worth an estimated $6 billion, started the foundation — which supported Harvard’s Kennedy School to the tune of more than $2 million in 2021 — which had a stated mission “to develop and inspire leaders in the North American Jewish community and Israel through programs and investments in promising professionals.”

But after a number of campus groups signed onto a letter placing 100% of the blame for Hamas’ brutal assault on Israeli shoulders, The Wexner Foundation joined several others in rebuking the University for failing to address the situation in a more forceful manner.

“We are stunned and sickened by the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians,” the Foundation’s letter began.

“Harvard’s leaders were indeed tiptoeing, equivocating, and we, like former Harvard President Larry Summers cannot ‘fathom the administration’s failure to disassociate the university and condemn the statement’ swiftly issued by 34 student groups holding Israel entirely responsible for the violent terror attack on its own citizens. That should not have been that hard,” the letter continued.

The conclusion reached by the foundation’s leadership was that the Harvard Kennedy School was no longer a good fit for a continuing relationship: “In the absence of this clear moral stand, we have determined that the Harvard Kennedy School and the Wexner Foundation are no longer compatible partners.”

The Foundation also noted that while they university’s response to the terror attacks — and the student letter blaming Israel — were enough to push them over the edge, there were broader issues in play as well.

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“Tolerance for diverse perspectives has slowly but perceptibly narrowed over the years,” the letter stated, adding that the response to the terror attacks in Israel had only made that more clear. “Many of our Israel Fellows no longer feel marginalized at HKS. They feel abandoned.”