In latest contentious fight for speaker, Rep. Tom Tiffany backs Ohio’s Jim Jordan

Congress is headed home for the weekend without electing a new speaker, but one Wisconsin Republican says he is ready to vote for U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, says he supports Jordan and hopes the next speaker will be able to hold together factions in his party.

Doing so could be a struggle.

Jordan won a secret ballot Friday to be the party’s nominee with a widely reported 124 votes. Little-known U.S. Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia reportedly received 81 votes. In order to be speaker, Jordan would need at least 217 votes, a majority of the entire House of Representatives.

Speaking to Wisconsin Public Radio’s The Morning Show on Friday, Tiffany said Republicans do not fall in line behind leadership the way Democrats did for former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“We’re just not that way. We’ve got these people that are very independent thinkers,” he said. “They’re not going to have somebody in leadership browbeat them. You have to convince them.”

Tiffany said he hopes the next speaker will be “somebody with vision and leadership, and we will be able to move forward even with that small majority.”

This was the second time this week Republicans voted behind closed doors to try to nominate a new speaker. On Wednesday, Louisiana Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, the current majority leader, defeated Jordan by a vote of 113-99.

Scalise withdrew Thursday when it was clear he would not have the support necessary to win a majority of the full House. Tiffany said he supported Jordan against Scalise, although he would have voted for Scalise on the House floor if he’d had the chance.

Tiffany said he believes Jordan is someone who can lead.

“Working under Jim Jordan as a member of the Judiciary Committee where he’s the chairman, I gotta tell you, he is so organized and he gets us prepared,” Tiffany told WPR. “He really has outstanding leadership abilities that people don’t oftentimes see.”

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted earlier this month when eight Republicans joined all Democrats in a 216-210 vote to vacate the office.

It is not clear when the full House will hold a floor vote to pick the next speaker.