20 Republican votes.

20 holdouts is significantly more than Jordan and his team expected

From CNN staff

Rep. Jim Jordan, fresh off the loss of his first ballot, is working behind the scenes to shore up more votes for a second House speaker ballot after losing a surprising 20 Republican votes.

Those 20 votes, according to CNN's Manu Raju, represents a significantly higher number of GOP House members opposing Jordan's speaker bid than his team had first anticipated.

"This number, this margin, 20 Republicans voting against him, that is much worse than they anticipated — they thought they were within striking distance, Jordan allies even thought they were within ten votes of the speakership," Raju reports.

Jordan’s allies believed the number of GOP opponents had shrunk from the 55 who voted Friday against supporting him on the House floor to roughly eight-to-10 holdouts after working to chip away at lawmakers over the past several days.

"They thought they were better than [Kevin] McCarthy did in January when he lost 19 Republicans on that first ballot. 20 Republicans is a significant deficit for him to make up," Raju said, referring to McCarthy's marathon race for speaker that lasted 15 ballots.

Jordan is meeting privately with some of the holdouts, according to several Republicans, to allay their concerns and convince them to vote for him in a future round or vote present — which would change the threshold to be elected speaker.