Rep. Jim Jordan's allies were shocked that he didn't receive the needed votes to become House speaker despite running all but unopposed, according to Bloomberg.
Jordan is the current front-runner for the GOP's House speaker position, but he lost the first race when he opposed Steve Scalise. Then, after Scalise dropped from the race, Jordan ran again and still came significantly short of enough votes to secure speakership.
That was a surprise to those close to the representative, according to reports.
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Jordan knows he has a lot of work to do, according to Politico.
"As he makes a final push for the speakership, he faces his own choice: Does he stick with his recent transformation into a team player? Or does he revert back to the tough tactics he built his reputation on?" the outlet asked Saturday.
The report continues:
"One thing is clear: He has work to do. While Jordan won the GOP nomination for speaker yesterday, the vote was far from the display of unity that he and his allies had predicted. An eye-popping 81 Republicans rejected Jordan in favor of a low-key backbencher, Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), who decided to run just hours before the vote."
That's where the surprise came in, according to the report.
“We were shocked at the number of people who did not vote for him,” Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), a Jordan ally, told Bloomberg in an interview. “There was nowhere else to go, and they still didn’t want to go there.”
Politico boils Jordan's problem down to a simple political distrust.
"The challenge Jordan is facing boils down to this: Despite becoming more aligned with leadership over the past three years, many of his colleagues still don’t trust him," it reported.
