Its official, Jim Jordan is out of the race for Speaker of the house. The big question for republicans Friday night, what now?

House republicans voted “no” when it came to Republican Jim Jordan as their nominee for Speaker of the House.

It’s been almost three weeks since Kevin McCarthy was voted out, a first in the history of our country. So, is this chaos in congress going to impact voters when it comes to the election next month and possibly next year?

The House remains without a speaker after another secret ballot Friday, Oct. 20 among the House Republican Conference voted against Congressman Jim Jordan staying in the race. This comes after he failed to win a majority three times this week.

While this plays out in Washington, we asked “will this have an impact on local voters this year and possibly into next year?”

History in the making in Washington D.C. Depending who you ask, that can be a good or bad thing.

“In the beginning our forefathers who developed this country, they wanted a house of representatives that represented you me, and everybody else not a party, and I think we’ve kind of morphed into this thing where it’s party versus party, and we forgotten about the individual electorate or the individual voter, and what they really want,” said Tom Eddy, chairman of the Erie Republican Party.

“It shows that republicans have a failure to lead when they have the opportunity to do so we’ve seen now three failed votes for jim jordan, and the only time that that caucus can coalesce against him as when they vote on a secret ballot,’ said Jim Wertz, chairman of the Erie Democratic Party.

The reaction to Congressman Mike Kelly’s votes for speaker over the past week not as far apart as you would think.

“I was surprised to see Congressman Kelly vote against Jim Jordan a couple of times, I was surprised to see him vote for Speaker McCarthy. I’m not sure what his decision tree looks like at this point, but it would be interesting if we saw how that secret ballot broke down where Congressman Kelly fell on that,” Wertz said.

“I think Congressman Kelly is sitting there and he’s getting more information than I have and if I said that sometimes when you sit from way back here, you have a certain amount of information and you’re making a decision on that if you’re there where everything is happening, and all of the reasons for this and reasons for that are being given you might think a little differently,” he explained.

So will these issues in washington dc this year have an impact on the presidential election next year?

“Time has an impact on how people perceive things and how they continue. Am I going to vote next year, 13 months from now based on what’s going on now. I don’t know I think I’ll be voting on what happens next summer making my decisions, then as opposed to back here,” Eddy explained. “I think the Republican party will still suffer the same turmoil and lack of cohesiveness in 2024 that they have shown us in 2023.”

Before either side can focus on 2024, they need to find a new speaker in 2023. That vote is expected to happen as early as the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 24 Following a candidate forum set for Monday, Oct. 23.

Until they can agree on another candidate to vote for, the house remains frozen with no elected speaker. And with each passing day that moves us closer to a possible government shutdown next month.

But as we said, a vote could come as early as Tuesday on a new speaker again.