Hannity is Reportedly Trying to Strong-Arm House Republicans Into Voting for Jordan

Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Fox News host Sean Hannity isn’t shy about voicing his opinion on his eponymous evening show Hannity, but multiple media outlets are reporting that he isn’t just sharing his views about House Republicans’ ongoing struggle to elect a Speaker — he’s actively working behind the scenes to nudge them along.

Republicans hold a very slim majority in the House, and it’s led to multiple struggles and stumbles as the party grapples with the demands from hardliners like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and attempts to achieve unity on even the simplest procedural decisions.

Gaetz infamously helped derail Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) Speaker ambitions, forcing his Californian colleague to endure an excruciating fifteen rounds of voting and make concessions that included allowing a single member to file a motion to vacate. Earlier this month, Gaetz and his allies in the House were angered by the deal McCarthy cut with Democrats to pass a stopgap spending bill and avoid a government shutdown, among other intraparty disputes, and triggered that motion to vacate.

On the afternoon of Oct. 3, McCarthy was ousted from his position by a handful of Republicans, being unable to win over any Democrats to vote for him, a predictable consequence from his public declarations he was uninterested in negotiating with them to maintain his grasp on the gavel.

Since then, House Republicans have been embroiled in chaos, with McCarthy even fending off rumors he planned to resign his seat all together, while some of his colleagues attempted to convince him to run for Speaker again.

The caucus has been unable to reach a consensus about McCarthy’s successor. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) was an early top contender, winning a majority of a closed vote of the GOP caucus but fell short of the votes needed to win with the full vote of the House, and stepped aside.

Like Scalise, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has the majority of the votes from the closed door GOP caucus vote, but is even further away from the total votes needed.

But Jordan does have an influential ally in a prime time Fox News host.

As first reported by Axios’ Capitol Hill reporter Juliegrace Brufke, Hannity producers have been contacting reluctant Republicans about their Speaker votes, but this effort has been “counterproductive to swaying Jordan skeptics.” In a post on The Platform Formerly Known as Twitter, Brufke wrote that moderate Republicans were “growing increasingly irritated” with the pressure from Jordan allies, citing emails sent by a Hannity producer as an example.

According to Brufke, the text of the email read as follows:

Hello,

Stephanie from the Hannity show with Fox News. Sources tell Hannity that Rep xxxx is not supporting Rep Jim Jordan for Speaker. Can you please let me know if this is accurate? And, if true, Hannity would like to know why during a war breaking out between Israel and Hamas, with the war in Ukraine, with the wide open borders, with a budget that’s unfinished why would Rep xxxx be against Rep Jim Jordan for speaker? Please let us know when Rep xxxx plans on opening The People’s House so work can be done. Lastly, are there any conditions Rep xxxx will choose to work with Democrats on the process of electing a new speaker? The deadline for comment is 11 AM ET tomorrow 10/16. Thank you.

A source with knowledge of the communications characterized the Hannity producer’s intentions as wanting to get the members on the record, since votes are done in conference, which is anonymous, versus a vote on the floor, which is made public.

Another motivation is the urgency of filling the position as work in the House has ground to a halt with going on three weeks without a Speaker, and urgent matters like the stopgap spending bill set to expire mid-November, the war in Israel, and funding for Ukraine needing resolution.

Washington Post Live anchor Leigh Ann Caldwell confirmed Brufke’s reporting and added that Hannity himself had “reached out directly” to one member of Congress, specifically citing the war in Israel as a reason to unite behind Jordan, but the House member “told me it’s not going to persuade them.”

Caldwell reported in The Early 202 for the Post that House Republicans had another closed-door meeting set for 6:30 pm ET Monday to “try to unite,” but Jordan continues to face a steeply uphill battle.

One Republican even “suggested that they might want to bring a Festivus pole, though, because these meetings have produced little more than the airing of grievances over the past two weeks,” wrote Caldwell, describing moderate and swing-district Republicans as “growing wary of the pressure campaign being deployed by Jordan and his allies,” including the outreach by Hannity’s team:

“Jordan’s team has the knives out,” one House Republican who represents a swing district said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the pressure being exerted on the member to vote for Jordan.

“I’ll vote my conscience, which is a ‘no,’ but I don’t want to be a punching bag for the next three days,” the member said. “Right now, Jordan is woefully short on votes, and his team wants to beat folks into submission.”

Jordan will need to lock down at least 217 votes out of the 221 Republican House members to be able to win the Speakership without Democratic votes (which he is not attempting to earn and is not expected to get). Perhaps a Festivus pole might not be a bad idea.