The shortest route to a bipartisan Speaker? A centrist Republican

On Friday, when the Republican conference majority chose Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as their next Speaker candidate for the House of Representatives, he fell 65 votes short of the 217 needed to win the gavel.

Beneath the headline was a quieter and weightier story — a reach across the aisle that puts a bipartisan coalition in view. It would be led by a centrist Republican Speaker elected with negotiated votes from both sides. The inevitable incentive for those negotiations should include the prospect of important and popular bipartisan legislation.

Such a bipartisan coalition carries the promise of putting the House in order. That is vital as the Middle East crisis underscores the absurdity of the House chaos.

Friday’s “reach-across-the-aisle” story started with four centrist House Democrats, led by New Jersey’s Josh Gottheimer, proposing to authorize Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) to bring to the House floor emergency legislation that, among other things, would authorize supplemental aid to Israel and Ukraine.

Their proposal would also extend current government funding from Nov. 17 through Jan. 11, 2024, buying Congress an additional eight weeks to avoid a government shutdown.

The move by these centrist Democrats was important for three reasons.

First, it was the first public sign of either party being willing to approach the other with a feasible proposal to break the ice on House paralysis. Momentum is apparent, with other centrist Democrats reportedly joining in support of the proposal in Friday’s letter. On Sunday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said that “informal discussions” between Democrats and Republicans were underway.

Second, it proposed specific legislation to bridge immediate global and national crises.

Third, the centrists created a model for bipartisan agreement that includes election of a Speaker.

Events are now moving in that direction.

Jordan implemented scorched-earth tactics last weekend, coordinating MAGA forces to threaten any moderate who votes on the House floor against him. Even so, he has a steep hill to climb to get to 217 Republicans. Word is that he will have a GOP challenger.

Many of his colleagues don’t trust him. He’s a firebrand performer, not a legislator. He has not passed a single piece of legislation in his 16 years in Congress. And the Jan. 6 committee called Jordan a “significant player” in Trump’s planning to overturn the 2020 election.

Importantly, at least some of the 18 Republican representatives in districts won by President Biden in 2020 will not want to support Jordan. They are sure to understand that their prospects for reelection in 2024 would be at risk if a flamethrower like Jordan becomes the face of the Republican Party in Congress.

One of the 18, Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), said diplomatically of Jordan: “I think he’s gonna have a math problem.” Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) added: “It’s going to be hard” for Jordan to win. Another group of 10 establishment Republicans are reportedly opposing Jordan.

Still, Jordan’s no-holds-barred weekend campaign against sensible Republican House members might peel off enough opponents to leave a relatively small group of Republican resistors unwilling to stand alone. Or, Jordan’s grenade-tossing might be what one of his supporters called “the dumbest thing you can do.” The tactic could coalesce a critical mass to resist him and tee up a bipartisan deal.

On Friday, multiple centrist Republicans echoed the spirit of Friday’s letter from four Democrats. Axios quoted Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.): “At this point, there are enough Republicans and Democrats saying we’ve got to get this fixed.” Even more pointedly, Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.) declared: “Bipartisanship is not a sin.” She added, “We’re open to anything that’s reasonable.”

What’s reasonable starts with the stopgap legislation proposed in the Democrat quartet’s letter. Beyond stopgaps, a more meaningful bipartisan legislative agenda must be crafted — along with rules changes to eliminate the one-vote rule for vacating the Speakership that a small hardcore cadre of Republicans forced on McCarthy.

Another adjustment: a rule to enable floor votes on bills after due committee consideration, as opposed to permitting bills to be tabled forever. This rule change would allow on-the-record votes that may induce members to “find religion” on broadly popular measures such as gun safety, immigration reform and voting rights.

Jeffries referred to such a rule change Sunday when he said that Democrats want “to ensure that votes are taken on bills that have substantial Democratic support and substantial Republican support.”

Common ground is within reach on each of these issues if the two sides practice the lost art of legislative compromise. For example, Democrats might agree to increase border security in exchange for clearer paths to citizenship. A national voting rights bill could combine Republican demands for more voter ID with Democrats’ goal of early voting in all states and a required adequate number of polling places per unit of population, so voters are not waiting in long lines.

There should be enough Democrats and Republicans willing to agree on a centrist Republican Speaker with that type of good governance legislation, especially as political pressure grows to resolve international crises and imminent funding threats to government programs benefitting millions.   

There are potential middle ground Republican Speaker candidates around whom Republicans and Democrats could rally to create a governing majority. As just one possibility, perhaps Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) could be drafted. He chairs the moderate House Republican Governance Group, and according to the Washington Post, Joyce is “viewed as an honest broker” by both GOP colleagues and centrist Democrats.

Joyce supported Trump in 2020 but voted to certify President Biden’s election. In September 2023, Joyce voted for the continuing resolution to keep the government open. He has supported aid to both Ukraine and Israel. He opposes abortion, as do 99 percent of House Republicans.

Joyce may not be interested, and he wouldn’t get the House MAGA fringe vote if he were. That, of course, is one of the facts of life that necessitates a bipartisan coalition. The obvious exigencies now facing Congress increase the prospects that sooner or later, a center-coalition could jell behind such a candidate.

But don’t bet the ranch on the timing.

Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor, is counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy. Frederick Baron is a former counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a former associate deputy attorney general.