Butler's Mike Kelly becomes lone Pa. Republican to vote against Jim Jordan for House speaker

A GOP congressman from Western Pennsylvania was one of 20 Republicans in Congress to vote Tuesday against installing U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as House speaker.

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, became the only Republican in Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation to vote against naming Jordan to the leadership position. Jordan was 17 votes shy of securing the speakership in the vote early Tuesday afternoon.

The vote came two weeks after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was booted from the position in a historic vote.

Republicans have been trying to fill the speaker role ever since, but finding a candidate with enough political support to make it through the Republicans’ narrow majority has proven difficult.

Jordan, a hardline conservative, emerged as the nominee early this week.

Kelly quickly responded to Jordan’s nomination by signaling that he would oppose Jordan, and instead issued a resolution that would temporarily expand Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry’s powers for a month or until a new speaker is elected. McHenry was placed as speaker pro tempore after McCarthy’s ouster, but doesn’t hold the same powers or abilities as a speaker.

Kelly said it was important to ensure the House could conduct business until a new speaker is elected, especially since the federal government is set to run out of funding in a month.

“Most importantly, and more broadly, we will be able to continue the work that the American people sent us here to do while we continue searching for a speaker of the House,” Kelly said in a statement.

Politically, Kelly is nearly as a conservative as Jordan.

Both are allies of former President Donald Trump, and both have embraced the false theory that Trump won the 2020 election. Kelly was part of a failed lawsuit that attempted to throw out Pennsylvania’s mail-in votes in the 2020 election, which would have tipped the state to Trump.

Kelly said his vote against Jordan is not a personal rejection of Jordan, but more an indicator of support for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. Kelly praised Jordan and his investigating Hunter Biden, but said that Scalise deserves a full vote in the House chamber after he was being considered by Republicans last week.

Kelly casted his vote Tuesday for Scalise.

“Steve Scalise received the most votes when the Republican conference first voted internally last week, and I believe he deserves a full vote on the House floor before we proceed to another candidate,” Kelly said. “I want to be clear, this has nothing to do with Jim Jordan. This has to do with the integrity of the House Republican Conference.”

Even so, Kelly became the only Republican from Pennsylvania’s delegation to vote against Jordan in Tuesday’s speaker vote.

Other Western Pennsylvania Republicans including U.S. Reps. Guy Reschenthaler of Peters, Glenn Thompson of Centre County, and John Joyce of Blair County voted for Jordan.

Pittsburgh-area Democrats U.S. Reps. Chris Deluzio of Aspinwall and Summer Lee of Swissvale voted for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.