Could the Speaker Race Get Even Uglier? Of Course.

Things are getting even uglier, if that was possible, in the House Speaker race—as some GOP members report receiving death threats after going against their hard-right colleagues and voting against Rep. Jim Jordan. 

The House has been in turmoil and left leaderless for two weeks, since Florida congressman Matt Gaetz led a small rebellion in the House, resulting in Speaker Kevin McCarthy being ousted. 

The fringe-right contingent of House Republicans have recently mounted a public pressure campaign, aided by right-wing pundits, to get their colleagues to vote for their guy—Ohio congressman Jordan—as speaker. In a second vote earlier this week, 20 Republicans voted against Jordan. He can only afford to lose four GOP votes if all members are present and voting. 

The public pressure campaign has riled up the GOP’s hard-right, who in recent days have reportedly bombarded Jordan’s detractors, and their families, with threats and harassment. 

Threats against lawmakers have soared in recent years. The Capitol Police’s Threat Assessment Section (TAS) investigated a total of 7,510 cases of potential threats to members of Congress in 2022. That was a decline compared to record high cases in 2020 and 2021, but still nearly double the caseload in 2017. Armed threats against lawmakers, in particular, have also been increasing, according to data compiled earlier this year by Giffords Law Center, which advocates for better gun safety laws around the U.S. 

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican from Iowa, said earlier this week that she received “credible death threats” after withdrawing her support from Jordan in the second round of voting. Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican from Colorado, said that he’s received at least four death threats. Nebraska GOP Rep. Don Bacon said his wife slept with a loaded gun by the bed after they received a torrent of threats. 

In one threatening voicemail against an unnamed Republican House member’s wife, published by CNN, the caller warned that she would be followed wherever she went. “We’re going to follow your ass, every appointment you have, every fucking thing you do,” he said. “You’re going to keep getting calls and emails. I’m putting all your information on the Internet now, you will not be left alone.” The caller also called her husband “a deep state prick.” 

In a post on X, the platformformerly known as Twitter, Jordan addressed the threats. 

“We condemn all threats against our colleagues,” he said. “Stop. It’s abhorrent.”

Tensions have been manifesting in other ways too. On Thursday, McCarthy reportedly “screamed” at Gaetz during a closed-door GOP conference meeting on Thursday and told him to “sit down.” Several outlets reported that Rep. Mike Bost, from Illinois, who voted for Jordan, nearly “lunged across the room.” 

And of course, there’s some pettiness as well. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from North Carolina, was one of eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy earlier this month—and has continued to defend her decision to do so. One of her colleagues, Rep. Greg Murphy, also from North Carolina (who is also backing Jordan) took a swipe at Mace on X on Thursday. Mace posted that no one should be allowed to go home until they have confirmed a speaker. Murphy responded “How about apologizing for causing this mess?”

“If you want to vote against the people who elected you that’s on you,” Mace posted. “I’m gonna stand with them, not Washington.” 

She said that Murphy blocked her shortly after posting that, adding “What a [cat emoji].” 

Mace piled on in a similarly colorful post. 

Some in Congress are unsurprised to see the ugliness unfold. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, has been a regular target of threats over the years. “It is honestly sad how after (the) GOP downplayed colleagues’ warnings about the volume of death threats from their base… are now experiencing what we have for years,” she wrote on X. “This was preventable.” 

The House is expected to hold a third vote for Jordan on Friday.