Representatives Ken Buck of Colorado and Kay Granger of Texas, who both have opposed Jim Jordan’s bid for speaker, announced their retirements on Wednesday.
The Republican party has been at the center of chaos since the ousting of Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker in a historic 216-210 vote on October 3 when Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, spearheaded an effort to remove him. Although House Republicans began voting on a nominee to replace him with Jordan being chosen as the new nominee, Jordan fell short of the required votes to become the next speaker after three rounds of voting. His loss followed a heated week on Capitol Hill as he and his allies attempted to persuade fellow GOP representatives to back him as speaker. However, his efforts were unsuccessful when 25 of his fellow party members voted against his bid, bringing his campaign to a bitter close and led to the subsequent win of Mike Johnson of Louisiana for speaker.
In an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday, following questions about how he feels about the state of the Republican party and his role, Buck announced he will not seek reelection.
“I have decided I’m not going to seek reelection. I’m joining Kay and probably some others in the near future, but I’ve decided that it is time for me to do some other things,” Buck said.
“I always have been disappointed with our inability in Congress to deal with major issues & I’m also disappointed that the Republican Party continues to rely on this lie that the 2020 election was stolen & rely on the January 6 narrative,” Buck added.
Meanwhile, Granger released a statement saying, “Serving my community has been the greatest honor, and I have always fought to improve the lives of my constituents. As the first female Mayor of Fort Worth, first Republican United States Congresswoman from Texas, and the first female Republican Appropriations Chair, I have been able to accomplish more in this life than I could have imagined, and I owe it all to my incredible family, staff, friends, and supporters.”
The announcement comes as many are pointing out Granger and Buck’s position to go against Jordan as speaker.
“Reps. Ken Buck and Kay Granger both announced their retirements today. Buck, who was widely expected to leave & has been openly critical of his party on a number of issues, voted to remove McCarthy and opposed Jordan for speaker. And Granger, Approps Chair, also opposed Jordan,” CNN Capitol Hill reporter Melanie Zanona wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
While independent journalist, Nick Sortor said on X, “U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, one of the republicans who blocked jim jordan from becoming speaker, will not be seeking re-election this makes buck the SECOND Jordan holdout that has decided to quit after the political fallout after Rep. Kay Granger announced she would quit last night.”
In response to Granger’s retirement, John O’Shea shared his thoughts on Granger and with Steve Bannon’s War Room show on Wednesday, stating “she doesn’t represent” the Republican will.
O’Shea also previously critiqued Granger’s position to oppose Jordan for speakership in an interview with Rich Baris, host of ‘Inside the Numbers’ on October 25.
“Jim Jordan being nominated and we thought hey here’s somebody who moderates can work with, but really appeals to the MAGA base…And then Kay purposefully went out there and undermined it, she took her members of appropriations committee and with them to vote against Jim Jordan…She didn’t only vote against Jim Jordan, she whipped the members of appropriations against him” O’Shea said.
Although Buck believes the Republican will be able to come together, but warns the Republican party needs to be able to deal with major issues without relying on lies.
“If we’re going to solve difficult problems, we’ve got to deal with some very unpleasant truths or lies and make sure that we project to the public what the truth is,” Buck said.
