Fox News is reporting that Congressman Mike Rogers (R-ALL03) has flipped from being the most outspoken “Never Jordan” member of the House of Representatives to being a supporter. Rogers’ flip makes it much more likely that Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) can win over enough moderate Republicans that he can be the next Speaker of the House.
After Jordan won the Republican nomination for Speaker of the House, Rogers vowed to reporters that he would “never support” Jordan. There were even reports of Rogers negotiating with Democrats to form some sort of unity government to prevent Jordan from being elected as Speaker.
That changed on Monday when Rogers went to the social media site X to announce he would support Jordan’s speakership bid.
“@Jim Jordan and I have had two cordial, thoughtful, and productive conversations over the past two days,” Rogers said on X Monday. “We agreed on the need for Congress to pass a strong NDAA, appropriations to fund our government’s vital functions, and other important legislation like the Farm Bill.”
“As a result, I have decided to support Jim Jordan for Speaker of the House on the floor,” Rogers followed up.
“Since I was first elected to the House, I have always been a team player and supported what the majority of the Republican Conference agrees to,” Rogers added. “Together, our Republican majority will be stronger to fight Joe Biden’s reckless agenda for America.”
Jordan thanked Rogers for his support. Jordan stated, “Your leadership is just what our Conference needs right now. We must all keep coming together and get back to work.”
Just last week, Rogers had said that “there was nothing that Jordan could do to get his support as Speaker of the House.”
Rogers is the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Jordan is the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
A key point of disagreement between Republicans is whether or not to continue supporting massive amounts of military aid for Ukraine. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) and a group of eight disgruntled Houe members used the Ukraine issue as a pretext for voting with Democrats to oust Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-California).
Jordan secured the Republican party’s speaker nomination on Friday, defeating Georgia Congressman Austin Scott. Jordan had lost to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) in a prior vote, but Scalise was unable to win over conservatives.
Jordan Defeated Scott by a vote of 124 to 81.
Jordan has been negotiating with GOP moderates like Jordan over the weekend in order to get to the 217 votes needed to secure the position of Speaker in a floor vote that could come as early as Tuesday.
Congressmen Barry Moore, Gary Palmer, and Jerry Carl have all already publicly announced their support for Jordan.
If Jordan cannot get the 217 votes necessary to win the Speakership, the Republican conference would likely have to nominate someone else.
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