Everything you need to know about Republicans is contained in the Jim Jordan secret ballot vote

They're still afraid.

(Jim Jordan)

On Friday, the House held a vote on whether Jim Jordan should be elected Speaker. Twenty five Republicans opposed Jordan’s ascension while 194 named the Ohio Congressman as their preferred pick.

Less than two hours later, in a ballot of the House Republican Conference, Jordan lost 112 to 86, with 5 members voting present.

What changed so many minds so quickly, you ask? The promise of anonymity, mostly.

See the first vote was public — a roll call vote for all the world to see. The second was behind closed doors and a secret ballot.

If you went looking for a better example of the fundamental problem with the modern Republican party, you could not find one.

Here’s why.

Jordan is a favorite of the Trumpian wing of the Republican party. Former President Donald Trump endorsed his bid for Speaker and the House Freedom Caucus, Trump’s foot soldiers in Congress, were the spine of Jordan’s candidacy.

Crossing that wing of the party has been shown to be a career killer for plenty of Congressional Republicans — with everyone from Mitt Romney to Adam Kinzinger to Liz Cheney on that list.

And, as I have written before, self preservation is at the root of the motivations for every single member of Congress. Their first imperative is to do nothing — publicly at least — that imperils their chances of getting reelected.

Knowing that, Jordan and his team sought to pressure moderates and others who were skeptical of him by hinting — not all that subtly — that a vote against him could mean a primary challenge from the ideological right.

That tactic eventually backfired as the Jordan faction unleashed its grassroots supporters who, predictably, took things too far. (Several anti-Jordan members reported getting death threats.)

But, the sentiment behind it was right. Jordan (and the House Freedom Caucus) knew that most elected Republicans live in fear of Trump and/or the Trump base turning against them.

That is the guiding political principle of the Republican party over the past seven years.

Ask a Member of Congress — outside of the Freedom Caucus — what they really think of Trump and you will get this response (or close to it): “Off the record?” [eye roll] “He is the worst.”

Ask a Member of Congress, on the record, what they think of Trump and you will get this response: “He’s the frontrunner for our party’s nomination and infinitely better than the Democratic alternative.”

Back in 2020, Carl Bernstein — he of “Watergate” fame — took to Twitter to name names:

The vast majority of those Senators named denied his claim publicly.

But what is undeniable is the fact that since Donald Trump became the GOP’s presidential nominee 7 years ago, the resistance to him — particularly from elected officials — has been the sort that is whispered about knowingly, not proclaimed proudly and publicly.

Again, this is a survival technique. It is not brave. It is not leadership.

I actually agree with Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s reaction to Jordan’s ouster by private ballot.

“The most popular Republican in the United States Congress was just knifed by a secret ballot, in a private meeting, in the basement of the Capitol,” Gaetz said.
It’s as swampy as swamp gets, and Jim Jordan deserved better than that.”

He’s not wrong! (Well, he’s wrong about Jordan being the most popular Republican in Congress. And he may be wrong on whether Jordan deserved it or not.)

The simple fact is that what Friday’s public vs private votes revealed is that the bulk of Republican elected officials are still afraid of Trump. With 20-ish exceptions, they all lined up behind Jordan in the public vote. But when it came time to express how they really felt — and with the cover of anonymity — they turned against Jordan (and Trump) in large numbers.

This is the reality of the modern Republican party. They are being led by a man they are terrified of.