Pressure mounted on House Republicans to elect a speaker Wednesday as U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan lost a second round of balloting for the vacant position.

Members of Colorado’s delegation voted the same as they had a day earlier, but Jordan fell short by a wider margin, with the number of GOP lawmakers casting ballots for someone other than Jordan increasing from 20 to 22.

“It’s Groundhog Day, except it’s not just a repeat – Jim Jordan is actually losing ground,” U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat, told Colorado Politics after the vote.

“The urgency couldn’t be greater,” DeGette added, pointing to an approaching deadline to fund the federal government and wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

“We need to have a speaker. We need to have resolute action by the House,” she said.

It takes 217 votes to win a majority of the narrowly divided chamber’s 433 voting members, meaning Jordan can only lose four Republicans. On Wednesday, the Ohio congressman received 199 votes – down from 200 in Monday’s first round – while Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York again received a unanimous 212 votes from his party.

The 22 Republican holdouts distributed their votes among 10 different recipients, including former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who lost the gavel two weeks ago when eight Republicans voted to depose the California Republican.

Colorado’s Republican lawmakers split their vote in both rounds, with U.S. Reps. Doug Lamborn and Lauren Boebert voting for Jordan and U.S. Rep. Ken Buck voting for GOP Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota. The state’s five Democratic House members voted for Jeffries.

Buck was the only House Republican who voted both to fire McCarthy and to block Jordan from the speakership.

Jordan’s failure to secure the chamber’s top job prompted increased calls from Democrats and some frustrated Republicans to explore other options – from fielding a consensus speaker candidate to granting more power to McCarthy’s temporary replacement so the paralyzed House can conduct legislative business.

However, allies of Jordan, whose bid for speaker has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, said to expect another vote on Thursday. Meanwhile, Jordan’s supporters ramped up pressure on the conservative hardliner’s Republican opponents.

“Every day that we wait, our border situation gets worse and our ally Israel doesn’t get the support they need to defend themselves from terrorist group Hamas,” Boebert said in a statement.

A spokesman told Colorado Politics that Boebert opposes granting any extra authority to the interim speaker pro tempore, Republican U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, who was designated by McCarthy but has so far only been able to oversee elections for a permanent speaker.

“The party should get behind Jim Jordan for speaker!” Anthony Fakhoury, Boebert’s press secretary, said in an email. “The American people want Jim Jordan.”

He added that Boebert’s GOP colleagues “need to get serious about this,” saying that a vote cast by one House Republican for former Speaker John Boehner “is making a mockery of the speaker’s race.”

U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Lakewood Democrat, drew a different conclusion from Wednesday’s vote.

“Instead of addressing the urgent challenges in this country and supporting our allies abroad, we are yet again sitting through another failed speaker vote,” she tweeted.

“The American people shouldn’t have to wait 2 weeks, or who knows how long, for a functioning House. They shouldn’t suffer at the hands of Republican infighting and the outsized power of far-right extremists, like Jim Jordan. There is too much at stake for these political games.”

Her Democratic colleague, U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo of Thornton, expressed similar frustration in a statement to Colorado Politics.

“Another day of chaos because Republicans are unable to elect a speaker means another day we are unable to pass urgent legislation to lower costs, address the situation at the border, or send aid to partners and allies like Ukraine and Israel,” said Caraveo.

“We must reopen the chamber for business. It is clear the Republican Conference does not have a governing majority, but our conference stands ready to take a bipartisan path forward. That includes the possibility of supporting a speaker pro tem as long as our colleagues are willing to move forward in a bipartisan manner.”

DeGette said in an interview that negotiations have been underway between Democratic leaders and some moderate Republicans, which she anticipates will yield a way out of the current stalemate.

“I’ve said from Day One, what has to happen is the regular Republicans have to come across the aisle, and they have to work with us for a solution that will restore order to Congress. That’s what has to happen,” DeGette said.

“Whether that involves giving more powers to the speaker pro tem for a short period of time, or a new speaker who comes in and and we agree to things like a budget, a resolution funding Ukraine and Israel aid, things like that – I’m gonna leave that to other powers that are negotiating this, but it’s clear that we need to have a bipartisan solution across the aisle.”

She said Jeffries told Democrats on Wednesday that it could take a while for even the most willing Republicans to face reality.

“They’re not ready to – they’re not at that point of agreement yet,” DeGette said. “Jim Jordan has dug in, and Kevin McCarthy is telling him that somehow he can pull this off, which almost everybody realizes can’t happen. But what this is going to involve is a whole bunch of regular Republicans holding hands and jumping off the cliff together. That’s what’s going to have to happen.”

Part of the difficulty, DeGette added, is that the House is in “uncharted waters.”

“This has never happened before, right?” she said. “The speaker’s chair has never been vacated before in the history of the United States.”

DeGette said a Republican colleague told her that his fellow partisans realize that Democrats control two-thirds of “the levers of government” – the White House and Senate – and that Republicans hold only a slim majority in the House, so GOP lawmakers will have to compromise.

“So, I think that the Republicans are processing this, but they haven’t yet figured out how they get from point A to point B, because this has never happened before in the history of this country,” she said.

Calling herself “always hopeful – I’m the glass-half-full lady,” DeGette predicted that a deal is in sight.

“I do think that there are enough Republicans who believe this, too, that we will be able to resolve something.”

Not if Colorado’s Republican Party has a say in the matter.

In an email blast sent out Wednesday afternoon, state GOP Chairman Dave Williams said the party “wholeheartedly” supports Jordan’s bid for speaker and called on Buck to change his vote.

After thanking Boebert and Lamborn for supporting Jordan, Williams wrote: “Now, we call on Congressman Ken Buck to do likewise and join his Colorado colleagues in supporting Congressman Jordan for all Speaker votes moving forward as we unequivocally oppose any further gridlock or delays on this critical election.”

“The U.S. House needs to get back to work, and the Republican Majority that was elected in 2022 needs to continue delivering on the promises they made to the American people before it’s too late,” Williams added.

He closed the email by listing phone numbers for the lawmakers, saying recipients are “welcomed and encouraged to let your voices be heard.”

Buck said on Wednesday that he’s prepared to keep voting against Jordan.

“I am. I’m not voting for him,” Buck told Axios congressional reporter Andrew Solender.

Two weeks ago, Williams heaped praise on Buck for voting to oust McCarthy.

“Washington, D.C., is broken, and its failed leadership needed to be held accountable today, so we applaud Congressman Buck for his principled and historic vote,” Williams said in a statement to Colorado Politics.

He said late Wednesday that the state party isn’t yet planning to take other measures to encourage Buck to drop his opposition to Jordan.

“Not at this point, but all options are on the table as our rank-and-file members demand that Jordan be elected speaker immediately and the gridlock stop,” Williams said in a text message.