Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick flips on Jim Jordan, whose speaker bid is losing support

The increasingly chaotic search for a House speaker grew even more complicated on Thursday as U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick publicly flipped his support away from Rep. Jim Jordan, whose path to the top job seems to be evaporating on the chamber’s 16th day without a leader.

Fitzpatrick (R., Bucks) told The Inquirer on Thursday morning that he’d no longer be voting for Jordan, as he had in the first two rounds of voting, and said that instead he’d back an interim solution to elevate the temporary speaker.

He said he would cosponsor a bipartisan measure to empower Rep. Patrick McHenry (R., N.C.) to expand his authority as temporary speaker, enabling the House to resume work.

Fitzpatrick updated his stance Thursday shortly before Jordan indicated that he wouldn’t seek a third vote and as GOP support for him dissolved. Initially, Jordan signaled he might get behind the temporary elevation of McHenry, which would allow him to continue campaigning for speaker in the interim, but by late afternoon Jordan said he would not support that plan.

The day marked a particularly messy display of the fractures within the GOP in an already harried two weeks after the unprecedented ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.). The divides — ideological but also along issues of procedure and personality — come as Republicans try to unite to hold on to a narrow majority as Democrats salivate over the ongoing dysfunction and look to target vulnerable members next year.

Fitzpatrick didn’t immediately elaborate on the reasoning behind his change of heart Thursday, but he joins a group opposing Jordan that has grown in recent days. He indicated he was always in favor of someone in the role who could work with both Democrats and Republicans. Jordan, a close ally of former President Donald Trump and a founder of the staunchly conservative Freedom Caucus, never fit that description, making support from Fitzpatrick somewhat surprising.

Fitzpatrick represents a purple district and casts himself as a moderate. Jordan, meanwhile, was a key proponent of 2020 election denialism — including false claims of voter fraud in Pennsylvania — and has voted against several recent bipartisan bills. Democrats in the House went so far as to describe Jordan as an insurrectionist in recent days.

On Thursday, Fitzpatrick lauded McHenry in a brief conversation with The Inquirer.

“Patrick is someone who’s going to get bipartisan support, which was always where we wanted to land and where we always knew we would land,” he said.

Some opponents of Jordan have indicated there was an intentional plan to weaken support for him gradually over multiple ballots, in an effort to pressure him to take himself out of contention. Fitzpatrick did not confirm nor deny that strategy.

Jordan remains the speaker-designate until he chooses not to seek the position. He has said he is prepared to go multiple rounds to grow support, as occurred with McCarthy’s marathon bid for the job, which lasted for 15 rounds of voting.

Fitzpatrick indicated through a spokesperson that he hopes that doesn’t occur. “One would assume that if the speaker-designate performs worse with every additional vote, that they would see the writing on the wall and withdraw,” spokesperson Reagan McCarthy said.

The result for now is a paralyzed House, leaving legislators unable to advance bills on government funding or military aid.

Twenty Republican representatives voted against Jordan in the first round Tuesday, and that number increased to 22 on Wednesday. With a narrow majority, Jordan could afford to lose only a handful of members of his party to secure the speakership with 217 votes.

Rep. Mike Kelly of Butler County was the lone Republican from Pennsylvania to oppose Jordan in the first two rounds. Kelly shares similar politics with Jordan, who was a leader in the election denialism of 2020. But Kelly had said from the get-go that he would not back Jordan, initially insisting that Rep. Steve Scalise (R., La.), who took himself out of contention for the speakership last week, was the best choice.

Kelly said his decision not to back Jordan was grounded in procedure, not ideological differences. “Steve Scalise received the most votes when the Republican Conference first voted internally last week, and I believe he deserves the full vote on the House floor before we proceed to another candidate,” Kelly said in a statement. He commended Jordan as “doing a great job investigating the Biden crime family. ... This has nothing to do with Jim Jordan. This has to do with the integrity of the House Republican Conference.”

On Monday Kelly proposed a resolution to beef up McHenry’s powers and delay a permanent vote, similar to Fitzpatrick’s more recent proposal.

Fitzpatrick, conversely, initially backed Jordan despite presenting himself as the most moderate of Pennsylvania’s eight-member Republican delegation. Fitzpatrick bucked most of his party in a 2022 gun control vote, voted in favor of raising the debt ceiling, and was a vocal proponent of the infrastructure bill, which he backed.

But Fitzpatrick also voted against impeaching Trump and against forming a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He joined every Republican in the House in opposing the American Rescue Plan.

Fitzpatrick faces a more conservative primary challenger next year, Mark Houck, a known anti-abortion advocate.

His vote for Jordan drew immediate backlash from his potential Democratic challenger next November, combat veteran Ashley Ehasz.

“Brian Fitzpatrick has campaigned on his supposed commitment to reaching across the aisle and solving problems — but time and again his votes have shown who he really is,” Ehasz said. “He voted to install an anti-abortion, election-denying extremist as speaker and has made his values perfectly clear.”