Buchanan Again Votes Against Jim Jordan for Speaker

WASHINGTON — On Friday, the GOP failed to select a speaker in its third vote. Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan (R-Longboat Key) was again among a limited number of Republicans who prevented far-right-wing conservative Jim Jordan from being elected Speaker of the House.

In the third vote, Jordan shed even more support, with 25 Republicans voting against him. Buchanan once more voted for Rep. Byron Donalds, who is a fellow Republican and also from Florida.

Republicans need 217 votes to elect a speaker. Jordan received only 194 votes in the third go-around, while House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) once again received the most votes with 210.

In 16 years on the hill, Jordan has not passed a single piece of legislation. Fellow Ohioan and former House Speaker John Boehner once called Jordan a "legislative terrorist," later explaining, "I just never saw a guy who spent more time tearing things apart―never building anything, never putting anything together."

Jordan rose to prominence mostly via Donald Trump, who endorsed him for the speaker role. This close alliance made some uncomfortable about the prospects of a Jordan speakership should Trump be reelected president next year, not to mention that it would almost surely lead to a government shutdown when the current short-term funding agreement expires before Christmas.

"Jim Jordan knew more about what Donald Trump had planned for January 6 than any other member of the House of Representatives," former Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) had previously said. "Jim Jordan was involved, was part of the conspiracy in which Donald Trump was engaged as he attempted to overturn the election."

Following the 2020 presidential election, Jordan made many appearances on right-wing media outlets where he was a prolific proponent of the "stolen election" conspiracy. The January 6 Commission's report called him a "significant player" in the attempted insurrection. Jordan urged Vice President Pence not to certify the election results and went on to lead the floor vote of the 147 Republicans who voted not to do so.

Jordan's candidacy also caused previous allegations to resurface, specifically that he abetted sexual abuse by not reporting allegations made by students against a team physician while Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State.

Dr. Richard Strauss was an Ohio State team doctor and sports medicine researcher accused of sexually abusing at least 177 men over an 18-year period from 1979 to 1997, nearly his entire tenure at the school, according to an independent report released in 2019. A number of former wrestlers have claimed that Jordan was aware of the allegations, while one of the victims claims he had reported the abuse directly to Jordan who did not act on the allegations. Jordan has denied knowledge of the abuse or allegations of it.

Republicans previously selected a former wrestling coach in the Speaker of the House when Dennis Hastert (R-IL) served from 1999-2007. Somewhat ironically, Hastert himself would be indicted in 2015 on charges that he unlawfully structured the withdrawal of $952,000 in cash in order to evade the requirement that banks report cash transactions over $10,000, and making false statements to the FBI about the purpose of his withdrawals. It would turn out the money was for a "hush money" agreement between Hastert and a former high school student Haster later admitted to sexually molesting.