Mike Kelly is the lone Pa. Republican to vote against Jim Jordan on first vote

All but one member of Pennsylvania’s Republican congressional delegation backed Rep. Jim Jordan for speaker of the House of Representatives in an initial vote Tuesday. Jordan fell short of the votes needed to fill the vacant speaker seat, but additional voting rounds could come as Republicans try to lock down a leader.

Rep. Mike Kelly of Butler County voted for Rep. Steve Scalise (R., La.) in the first round of voting. Kelly, 75, has been in Congress since 2011 and represents the northwesternmost part of the state. He shares similar politics with Jordan, who is an ally of former President Donald Trump’s and was a leader in the election denialism of 2020. But Kelly had said from the get-go that he would not back Jordan, insisting that Scalise, who took himself out of contention for the speakership after losing in a vote last week, was the best choice.

In the first round of voting Tuesday, Jordan got 200 votes. He would need 217 to become speaker.

Kelly introduced a resolution on Monday to allow for a vote to expand the powers of Rep. Patrick McHenry (R., N.C.) as temporary speaker and delay the much-awaited vote on a permanent leader of the chamber. The resolution would expand McHenry’s powers until Nov. 17 — the deadline for Congress to fund the government and avoid a shutdown — or until a new speaker is elected.

“By electing Representative McHenry as speaker pro tempore of the House of Representatives, the House will be able to hold votes necessary to fund the government beyond the expiration of our current fiscal year,” Kelly said in a statement. “Most importantly, and more broadly, we will be able to continue the work that the American people sent us here to do while we continue searching for a speaker of the House.”

No action was taken on the resolution Tuesday. Instead, all eyes were on the vote. Pennsylvania’s seven other Republican representatives all voted for Jordan: Rep. Scott Perry, a leader in the Freedom Caucus that Jordan founded; Rep. Glenn Thompson of Centre County; Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Lancaster County; Rep. Dan Meuser of Columbia County; Rep. John Joyce of Blair County; Rep. Guy Reschenthaler of Washington County; and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Bucks County.

Fitzpatrick’s vote was perhaps the most surprising. He is a cochair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, the lone Republican representing Southeastern Pennsylvania, and the most moderate member of Pennsylvania’s GOP delegation.

Fitzpatrick, who is also the only Republican representing a district that President Joe Biden won in 2020, faces a more conservative primary challenger next year.

In a statement shortly before the vote, he blasted eight Republican “extremists” who voted to oust McCarthy and called House Democrats “aiders and abettors.” He blamed those colleagues for putting his party in a position to choose between a functioning chamber and ongoing legislative paralysis two weeks into the speaker vacancy.

“These 208 + 8 have made it abundantly clear that they will not tolerate, protect, nor vote for, any moderate speaker who demonstrates bipartisanship and puts two-party solutions on the floor,” Fitzpatrick said. “What a terrible message they’ve sent to America. And they have now left the rest of us with no other option other than to immediately fill the speaker vacancy with the first member of the majority who can garner 218 votes.”

Since the historic ousting of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) as speaker earlier this month, the chamber has been sidelined, unable to move legislation, approve U.S. government funding, or grant aid to efforts such as military support for Israel amid the country’s war with Hamas.

Some Republicans pointed to Israel as a pressing reason to resume governing and lauded Jordan’s leadership. “Jim Jordan will be the people’s speaker for such a time as this,” Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) said, calling him an “America-first warrior.”

But coming to a consensus on who should lead the narrowly Republican-controlled House has proved fractious. Kelly is one of a handful of Republicans to say he will not support the bid by Jordan. The question now is whether they can be persuaded in forthcoming votes.

For Jordan to advance with the 217 votes needed, he can lose only five GOP votes, assuming that all Democrats oppose him, as they did in the first vote Tuesday.

Jordan also came up short in a speaker vote last week, but his allies have mounted a pressure campaign to sway enough Republicans to their side after the failed bid to elect Scalise.

All eight Republican representatives in Pennsylvania’s delegation voted against ousting McCarthy as speaker earlier this month.

The elevation of Jordan would mark a significant rise for one of Trump’s longtime allies and a victory for the right wing of the party. It comes during a time when Republicans have struggled to unify in the chamber.

Jordan was a chief supporter of Trump and an outspoken advocate in trying to prevent Pennsylvania’s electoral votes from being counted for President Joe Biden in 2020. He voted to reject Pennsylvania’s electoral votes and spoke at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Harrisburg shortly after Election Day.

Democrats have cast Jordan as an extremist. The Democratic caucus chair, Rep. Peter Aguilar (D., Calif.), said on the floor Tuesday that elevating Jordan would show the world “the very people who would seek to undermine democracy are rewarded with positions of immense power.”

Rep. Susan Wild, a Democrat from Lehigh Valley, characterized her vote against Jordan as a vote “to save our democracy” before voting Tuesday.

She also criticized Jordan for pressuring other Republicans to support him.

“The fact that Jim Jordan had to threaten every Republican member with a primary if they didn’t vote for him to be speaker tells you everything you need to know about Jim Jordan,” Wild posted on X on Monday.

Former Rep. Charlie Dent, a Lehigh Valley Republican, said Jordan’s rise would have been “unthinkable” when he was serving from 2005 to 2018, “given that he was one of those really hard-edge guys, you know, a bomb thrower going up on the Hill with no compromise and no consensus.”

Staff writer Chris Brennan contributed to this article.