Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio told The Daily Caller News Foundation Friday morning that his colleagues are urging him to throw his name in for the upcoming race to replace outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.
“There is no speaker’s race,” Jordan told TheDCNF. “If and when there is, my colleagues have urged me to consider it, and I’m open to that. The focus is not on who the speaker is; the focus is on what we do. The key is: We have got to get back to what the American people sent us here to do. ”
Jordan mentioned that Republicans haven’t “gotten the border security wall done, we haven’t gotten to welfare reform, we need to make the tax cuts permanent, we still need to deal with Obamacare.
“Those are kinds of things we should be focusing on and we’ve got to get control of the ridiculous spending,” Jordan told reporters.
Jordan, like many House staffers told TheDCNF Thursday, is keeping his focus on retaining the Republican majority in the House.
Forty-eight-year-old Ryan officially will not seek re-election in November, validating months of speculation around Washington the speaker was ready to hang up his hat after serving nearly two decades in Congress, he officially announced Wednesday morning. Ryan made the decision to spend more time with his family so as not to be a “weekend” father, he told reporters.
“You all know that I did not seek this job. I took it reluctantly,” Ryan told reporters Wednesday. “But the truth is it’s easy to take over everything in your life, and you can’t just let that happen because there are other things in life that can be fleeting as well — namely your time as a husband and a dad, which is the other great honor of my life. And that’s why today I am announcing that this year will be my last one as a member of the House.”
Two of the top ranking House Republicans–House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana–are also angling for the position.
McCarthy failed to garner the 218 required votes to become speaker in 2015, but his particularly close relationship with President Donald Trump is expected to give him a potential upper hand over Scalise in the coming months. Scalise wouldn’t rule out a potential bid for Ryan’s job but is also adamant he would not run against McCarthy, who he considers a “good friend,” he said in March.
Both representatives are raising millions for the party and for midterm candidates, which give them solid footing as Republicans look to choose their next leader.
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