House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, faces an unclear path to the speakership after securing the GOP nomination.<\/p>\n
In the chaotic fight to replace recently ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Jordan has been making calls to shore up support for his bid after House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., the initial nominee, bowed out due to a lack of support in the divided Republican caucus.<\/p>\n
However, Jordan does not necessarily need to get the required House majority to take the gavel. The House has elected a speaker a few times in history on a plurality rather than an outright majority.<\/p>\n
The House is allowed to decide how the speaker election is held, according to House Practice, so changing the threshold is an option on the table.<\/p>\n
In fact, there have been two plurality elections to decide the House speaker in American history.<\/p>\n
In 1856, during the 34th Congress ahead of the Civil War, the House faced a fractured chamber after concessions and dividing lines over slavery had been burned into the sand.<\/p>\n
A fledgling Republican Party, a decimated Democratic Party, the nativist American (Know-Nothing) Party and a declining Whig Party could not decide on a top House lawmaker.<\/p>\n
When voting began, 21 members received votes backing them for speaker on the first ballot, throwing the House into a deadlock that lasted two months.<\/p>\n
Amid the votes, American Party Rep. Felix Zollicoffer of Tennessee introduced and passed a House resolution having the three top candidates for speaker to \u2018publicly state their opinions of Congress\u2019 recent actions on the spread of slavery to the western territories.\u2019<\/p>\n
Even after the questioning session the House could not decide on a speaker.<\/p>\n
That deadlock was broken when the House voted to reduce the threshold to elect the speaker from the traditional simple majority to a plurality election.<\/p>\n
After 133 votes, Speaker Nathaniel Banks of the Know-Nothings was elected as speaker of the 34th Congress with 103 votes backing him.<\/p>\n
Before then, during the 31st Congress in 1849, the House was without a speaker for 19 days with neither the Whigs and Democrats holding a House majority and the Free Soil Party splitting the votes further.<\/p>\n
The first ballot was a split one that did not yield a speaker, leading to several weeks of elections to determine the leader of the House.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After 13 ballots, then-Rep. Andrew Johnson of Tennessee proposed a resolution to lower the speaker election threshold to a plurality as well as an amendment to ballot the election.<\/p>\n
The resolution and amendment passed, and Georgia Democrat Rep. Howell Cobb was elected speaker via plurality after 63 votes, three votes after the rules had been changed.<\/p>\n
Jordan, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, has made headway, flipping key no votes to support him, but there is still a real chance that his bid will be dashed on the House floor.<\/p>\n
Scalise faced a problem that Jordan is working to solve: Getting the numbers up in a slim majority to propel him behind the gavel.<\/p>\n
Historically, there is precedent for a plurality speaker election, but the move is risky if the math does not add up.<\/p>\n
Any miscalculation on votes in a plurality election would run the risk of the GOP inadvertently handing the speakership to the Democrats, should GOP members break from the party.<\/p>\n
However, should the GOP need a nuclear option to choose a new speaker, historical precedent provides one.<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital\u2019s Aubrie Spady and Matteo Cina contributed reporting.<\/p>\n