Florida Republicans split on Jim Jordan for speaker

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Republican members of Florida’s congressional delegation are split on the potential speakership of Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as the chamber seeks a replacement for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., initially filed the motion to vacate the chair, which succeeded in McCarthy’s removal from power after seven Republicans joined him and Democratic representatives in a vote.

Since the removal, House Republicans first agreed to nominate Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., who since dropped out, and was replaced with Jordan.

Florida Republican Reps. Gus Bilirakis, Vern Buchanan, Kat Cammack, Byron Donalds, Neal Dunn, Anna Paulina Luna, Brian Mast, Cory Mills, Greg Steube and Michael Waltz joined Gaetz in openly supporting Jordan’s nomination.

Dunn said that “time is of the essence” to get the government moving and that too much is at stake both domestically and globally.

“I’m supporting Jim Jordan for Speaker of the House because we need a speaker to help us secure disaster funding for those affected by Hurricane Idalia and help the Israeli people who are fighting Hamas,” he said.

“Jim Jordan for Speaker of the United States House of Representatives,” Donalds exclaimed. “No more delays.”

“Our voters want Jim, I’m with Jim, the House is ready for Jim, America NEEDS Jim,” he said.

Donalds said he is ready to get to work on securing the border, holding Biden accountable, reigning in spending and increasing law and order policies.

Reps. Carlos Gimenez and John Rutherford came out in opposition to Jordan serving as speaker.

“The truth is, @SpeakerMcCarthy raised more money than any other @GOP leader & we GAINED seats in 2020 and 2022 under his leadership,” Gimenez said on social media.

“McCarthy [is] the leader we need if we are to keep and expand our Republican majority in the House of Representatives,” he exclaimed.

Gimenez said that he voted for McCarthy in protest during the closed-door meetings that the GOP had when choosing between Scalise and Jordan.

“The speaker that we had should be the speaker that we need in the future,” he told CNN.

Rutherford told C-SPAN that he supported McCarthy because 96% of the party voted for him during the motion to vacate.

“I’m a no on allowing Matt Gaetz and the other seven to win by putting their individual in as speaker,” he said.

“@RepRutherfordFL would vote against Speaker-Designate Jim Jordan just to spite me,” Gaetz said in response. “I hope he gets some feedback from Floridians that this is selfish and bad for the country.”

Rutherford also brought up concerns about the delay in the legislative process and called out “hypocritical members” who were obstructing majority rule in Congress.

”It’s time to take our votes to the House floor,” Rutherford said. “Anonymity behind closed doors has shielded members who won’t be held accountable so long as their vote is cast in the dark. Majority rule was good enough to elect us to Congress, but now it’s not enough to elect a speaker?”

Gaetz responded to Rutherford again, saying that Jordan has majority backing from the House Republican Conference and asked if he could count on the representatives vote.

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Christian Ziegler voiced his opinion, saying to the Florida Republican members of Congress that the main priorities in the speaker’s race is to not make “deals” with Democrats. He advocated for unity in the party to elect Jordan.

The state’s other Republican Reps. Aaron Bean, Mario Diaz-Balart, Scott Franklin, Laurel Lee, Bill Posey, Maria Elvira Salazar and Daniel Webster have not publicly commented how they plan to vote on the House floor at the time of this articles publication.