With the election of a new U.S. House speaker very much up in the air on Thursday, some Republicans who have opposed the election of Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan have been getting threatened, though that doesn’t appear to be the situation with the four Florida Republicans who opposed Jordan on a second ballot on Wednesday.
The four are South Florida’s Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Giménez, as well as Jacksonville’s John Rutherford and Sarasota Rep. Vern Buchanan.
All four were targeted on Wednesday night by Amy Kremer, a conservative political activist affiliated with the Tea Party movement and an avid Jordan supporter.
“We need a #JordanForSpeaker rally/sign waving in front of these Congressional offices,“ Kremer wrote on X, where she listed the cities where the four GOP members of Congress have congressional offices in Florida.
The Phoenix reached out to the congressional offices of all four members of Congress on Thursday. Spokespeople for Diaz-Balart and Buchanan said that they were not aware of any such demonstrations in front of their offices in Doral and Sarasota, respectively.
However, on Wednesday, our Washington, D.C. reporters wrote:
“Díaz-Balart told reporters before the Wednesday vote that trying to threaten members opposed to Jordan wasn’t the right path to take. ‘As soon as you go into the strategy, of kind of trying to intimidate and threaten people. What happens is that, you know, there are people here who are honorable and they’re dignified and they will not be threatened and that just makes it worse.’”
Also, “If you are calling about the speaker elections, please leave a message,” is the voice mail message that callers received when calling Diaz-Balart’s office on Thursday. Callers to Rutherford were similarly greeted with a message that asked callers to leave a comment.
Max Goodman, an advisor for Buchanan, noted that after initially supporting Jordan for speaker on Tuesday, Buchanan pivoted to Southwest Florida Congressman Byron Donalds on Wednesday when it was clear that there was no path forward for Jordan.
“We’re going to have to solve this race quickly. I’ve served with Byron, he’s a conservative champion, and I hope my colleagues will consider his name as we look for a way forward. It’s about time Florida had a seat at the table,” said Buchanan, who chairs the Florida congressional delegation.
Here are excerpts from States Newsroom bureaus and partners across the country:
Georgia Recorder:
“A Georgia GOP congressman who backed Ohio U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan for speaker in the first round of voting but not Wednesday has cited the pro-Jordan crowd’s bullying tactics and pressure campaign as the reason for flipping his vote – a vote he says was followed by death threats.
“U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, a Republican from The Rock in Upson County, issued the statement Thursday as news spread that Jordan would not seek a third vote for speaker at this time after losing support on the second ballot Wednesday.
“Ferguson said that he had “genuine concerns about the threatening tactics and pressure campaigns Jordan and his allies were using to leverage members for their votes.” His comments mirror concerns expressed by others about the pressure campaign deployed to put the gavel in Jordan’s hand.”
Iowa Capital Dispatch
“U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks received death threats and a “barrage of threatening calls” after not supporting Rep. Jim Jordan for House speaker, the Iowa Republican said Wednesday …
Since that vote, Miller-Meeks said in a news release she has received “credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls.” Her office is cooperating with authorities who have been notified about the threats, she said.
Nebraska Examiner
“Nebraska U.S. Rep. Don Bacon …and other centrist Republicans who were lobbied hard by the Jordan-Trump political machine have said they will hold their ground despite waves of out-of-state calls, voice messages, text messages and threats, which Bacon said reached even his wife’s cell phone.
“He shared two text message strings sent to his wife with local reporters on Wednesday that he had shared previously with Politico. One said, ‘Your husband will not hold any political office ever again. What a dissapoint [sic] and failure he is.’
“The other text string told her to have her husband ‘step up and be a leader and help the Republican Party get a speaker’ and added that ‘no wonder our party always ends up getting screwed over.’”
The Texas Tribune
(a partner)
“U.S. Reps. Kay Granger of Fort Worth, Tony Gonzales of San Antonio and Jake Ellzey of Waxahachie all voted against Jordan’s bid again during the second vote to select a new speaker since former Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California was ousted. Granger and Gonzales voted for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise while Ellzey voted for fellow fighter pilot veteran Rep. Mike Garcia, R-California.
“Jordan failed to secure the gavel in Wednesday’s vote where he received a total of 199 votes, short of the 217 he needed to secure the gavel. Most of the 22 Republican votes against Jordan — two more than Tuesday’s vote — went to long-shot candidates and were largely in protest against the far-right Ohioan. One vote, from Iowa’s Mariannette Miller-Meeks, went to Granger.
“This was a vote of conscience and I stayed true to my principles. Intimidation and threats will not change my position,” Granger said in a post on social media after the vote.”
Editor Diane Rado contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared in florida phoenix