WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert was among a core group of conservatives refusing to support Republican leader Kevin McCarthy as the party voted Tuesday on who will become the next House speaker.
McCarthy failed in two rounds of voting, a historic defeat with no clear way out as House Republicans dug in for a long, messy start for the new Congress. Needing 218 votes in the full House, McCarthy got just 203 in both rounds.
Boebert, who represents Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, tweeted during both voting rounds Tuesday that she was supporting conservative Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. She was among six representatives to vote for Jordan in the first round. In the second round, Jordan got 19 votes.
"I just voted for Jim Jordan to be Speaker of the House," Boebert tweeted after the first vote.
After the second round of voting, she tweeted, "Jim Jordan is making a compelling case to be Speaker."
Before the second vote, Jordan, a rival-turned-McCarthy ally, rose to urge his colleagues, even those who backed him as an alternative, to drop their opposition.
“We have to rally around him, come together” Jordan said of McCarthy.
In the final first-round tally, McCarthy won 203 votes, with 10 for Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and nine for other Republicans.
After a raucous private GOP meeting, a core group of conservatives led by the Freedom Caucus and aligned with Donald Trump's MAGA agenda were furious, calling the meeting a “beat down” by McCarthy allies and remaining steadfast in their opposition to the GOP leader.
The group said McCarthy refused the group's last-ditch offer for rules changes in a meeting late Monday at the Capitol.
“He eagerly dismissed us,” Boebert said.
Lawmakers convened in a new era of divided government as Democrats relinquish control of the House after midterm election losses. While the Senate remains in Democratic hands, barely, House Republicans are eager to confront President Joe Biden’s agenda after two years of a Democratic Party control of both houses of Congress.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Politics
