In a 2021 photo, Rep. Byron Donalds speaks while Rep. Steve Scalise looks on. (Photo: Office of Rep. Donalds)
Oct. 7. 2023 by David Silverberg
Southwest Florida’s members of the US House of Representatives are split in endorsing Republican candidates for Speaker of the House.
Reps. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.) and Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.) are endorsing Rep. Jim Jordan (R-4-Ohio).
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-26-Fla.) is endorsing Rep. Stephen Scalise (R-1-La.).
In Florida, Jordan has also received an endorsement from former President Donald Trump and a more tepid nod from Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
“[Jim Jordan] has my full support to become the next Speaker of the House!” Donalds posted Thursday, Oct. 5, on X.
“I encouraged [Donald Trump] to run for Speaker because he could unite the Republican conference in historic ways,” stated Steube yesterday, Oct. 6, on X. “But I have full confidence in President Trump’s pick for our Speaker: [Jim Jordan]. We must unite around Chairman Jordan who has led the charge in [investigating weaponization of the federal government] and the [House Judiciary Committee]’s critical work to protect our freedoms. Jim is a great patriot who can get the job done! He holds the respect of so many in our conference and I trust him to lead!
“No one is better prepared to lead the House from the minute they are elected than [Steve Scalise]” Diaz-Balart declared on X on October 5.
Shortly after midnight on Friday, Oct. 6, Trump issued a post on his Truth Social network endorsing Jordan, reciting Jordan’s background and accomplishments and concluding (capitalization as posted): “He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!”
DeSantis’ endorsement was more indirect: “…I think you have guys like Chip Roy from Texas who’s excellent, Thomas Massie from Kentucky who’s excellent, Jim Jordan from Ohio” said DeSantis in an interview on South Carolina’s WSPA-TV channel. “These guys are all good guys and I think they would do a good job.”
Whoever is elected Speaker must win a majority of House votes. House Democrats have remained united as a bloc, effectively making them kingmakers amidst Republican infighting and factionalism.
Scalise, Donalds and Southwest Florida
Scalise, currently the House majority leader, has some familiarity with Southwest Florida.
During Donalds’ 2020 primary race for Congress, Scalise was a heavy contributor to Donalds’ primary and general campaigns. The support came from two Scalise-related committees: Scalise for Congress and his Eye of the Tiger Political Action Committee (PAC). In 2020, Scalise for Congress contributed $4,000 to Donalds so he could retire some of his primary election campaign debt and Eye of the Tiger PAC contributed $10,000.
These were particularly important contributions coming as they did during a nine-candidate primary race when Donalds’ success was very uncertain.
Scalise had previously clashed with Donalds’ predecessor, Rep. Francis Rooney when Rooney was proposing a ban on oil drilling off the Gulf coast.
Like the Paradise Coast, Scalise’s Louisiana district is dominated by shoreline and wetlands—but unlike Florida, it is home to an extensive offshore oil exploration and exploitation industry. Indeed, Scalise is such a spokesman for the oil industry that one trade publication was led to ask if he was the “oil industry’s best friend in Congress.”
In 2018 Rooney and Scalise had a memorable exchange when they were on the House floor together and Scalise told Rooney that the oil industry would object to his efforts to keep the eastern Gulf off-limits to exploration. In an address to a private group at the Alamo gun range and store in Naples on May 30, 2018, Rooney related what happened next:
“I was on the House floor with Steve Scalise and I got in his face and I said, ‘You’re telling me that the industry won’t go for protecting the Eastern Gulf in Florida? What industry are you talking about? I’m talking about tourism. I’m talking about why we’re all here, okay? Just because Louisiana is a pit, doesn’t mean we want to become a pit. Okay?’”
In the 116th Congress, neither man got what he wanted: Scalise never opened the eastern Gulf and Rooney never closed it. However, with the help of then-Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.), Rooney was able to get a ban on offshore drilling approved by the entire House, although it never advanced in the Senate.
Donalds’ pivot to Jordan as Speaker represents a rejection of the man who was one of his earliest backers.
However, Donalds has also based his past campaigns and current standing on his relationship with Trump.
Jordan, a founder of the House Freedom Caucus, a closed, invitation-only group of extreme conservative members of Congress, has been in the House since 2007 and has loudly and aggressively fought nearly anyone with whom he came in contact.
As The Washington Post reported in a 2019 article on Jordan: “For years, Jordan led a band of misfit conservatives who grappled not so much with Democrats, but Republicans: helping drive two GOP speakers of the House out of town, killing bills that didn’t pass purity tests, shutting down the government. Jordan became such a despised member of his conference that some of his colleagues began suggesting to party leaders that they redistrict him out of his seat.”
Since 2016 Jordan has been an outspoken and extreme partisan of Trump both when Trump was president and afterwards. Jordan worked to discredit investigations into Russian election interference and did everything he could to prevent the first Trump impeachment inquiry. He was a leading congressional advocate of the big lie that Trump actually won the 2020 election and voted to overturn the election. After the Jan. 6 riot and insurrection he refused to assist the January 6th Committee investigating it and defied its subpoena.
A Jordan speakership promises to be extreme, Trumpist and completely obstructionist.
An alternative was put forward by head of the Democrats, House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-8-NY) in an op-ed in The Washington Post that appeared yesterday, Oct. 6, titled, “A bipartisan coalition is the way forward for the House.”
Democratic and Republican cooperation is essential to accomplishing the nation’s business, Jeffries argued. “In short, the rules of the House should reflect the inescapable reality that Republicans are reliant on Democratic support to do the basic work of governing. A small band of extremists should not be capable of obstructing that cooperation,” he wrote.
“At this point, we simply need Republican partners willing to break with MAGA extremism, reform the highly partisan House rules that were adopted at the beginning of this Congress and join us in finding common ground for the people,” he stated.
A vote on the new Speaker is expected shortly after the House reconvenes next week.
Liberty lives in light
© 2023 by David Silverberg