Late last week, Jim Jordan received some good news and some bad news. The good news was that the House Republican conference formally nominated him to be the next House speaker. The bad news was that several dozen GOP members said they had no intention of supporting Jordan’s bid during a floor vote.
The far-right House Judiciary Committee chairman had a few days to work with allies, win over skeptics, and execute a strategy to succeed. True to form, Jordan relied on the kind of tactics that have helped define his political career.
The New York Times reported on Monday that the Ohio congressman and his supporters “have begun a right-wing pressure campaign against Republicans opposed to electing him speaker, working to unleash the rage of the party’s base voters against any lawmaker standing in the way of his election.” The report added that Jordan’s allies had shared contact information online for lawmakers who appeared skeptical of his candidacy.
This approach had a predictable outcome. NBC News reported:
A Republican congresswoman who initially supported Rep. Jim Jordan for House speaker before she backed another GOP lawmaker said she received death threats and threatening phone calls after she cast her vote Wednesday. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, revealed the death threats in a statement just hours after Jordan failed to secure enough votes in the second round of balloting for House speaker.
“Since my vote … I have received credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls. The proper authorities have been notified and my office is cooperating fully,” Miller-Meeks explained in a statement posted to social media.
The Iowa Republican added, “One thing I cannot stomach, or support is a bully.”
Miller-Meeks was not alone. Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told reporters this week that his wife had received multiple anonymous messages with warnings about Jordan’s bid for speaker. Overnight, Republican Rep. Nick LaLota released a copy of a violent threat he received.
Some of the other GOP members who’ve balked at Jordan’s candidacy have pointed to related incidents of harassment from the Ohioan’s supporters.
Stepping back, there are a few dimensions to this that are worth keeping in mind. The first is that the threats appear to be having the opposite of the intended effect: None of Jordan’s Republican opponents have wobbled in response to the intimidation tactics.
“Threatening us does not work,” Bacon told Newsmax. Similarly, Rep. Carlos Giménez of Florida told CBS News, “What you’ve done now is you’ve cemented my position.” The second is that Jordan appears to realize how significant this problem has become, and roughly 12 hours ago, the right-wing congressman condemned the threats. It was, however, a little late in the process for such a statement — and the damage was already done. Finally, it’s worth appreciating the significance of tactics like these in the larger context of the evolving Republican Party. As a Washington Post report summarized overnight, “It’s perhaps one of the most important but least-understood facets of the MAGA movement’s dominance of the Republican Party: the role of threats and intimidation.” In case this isn’t painfully obvious, if the threats have the intended effect, we’ll see more of them. If they fail, we’ll see less of them. Update: Republican Rep. Drew Ferguson of Georgia also said that he received death threats after voting for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, instead of Jordan, for speaker.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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