The highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress said she is open to supporting a long-shot bid by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to replace House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), giving a boost to the conservative insurgency seeking to take over the House Republican caucus. In an interview Friday with the Spokane, Wash.-based newspaper the Inlander, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said she had spoken with Jordan, as well as House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the No. “I am staying open,” McMorris Rodgers said. The decision by McMorris Rodgers to decline to make an endorsement raises questions about divides within the party over who should be the next speaker. In a letter to colleagues announcing his candidacy last month, Jordan said that the Republican-led Congress had let down the president.

Source: Washington Post August 25, 2018 22:07 UTC