In a surprise move, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, will back a plan to temporarily empower interim speaker Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., until January, according to three sources, allowing legislative business to continue in the face of two wars and a looming government shutdown.

Jordan, the GOP’s latest nominee for speaker who lost two rounds of votes this week, will continue to run for speaker and try to shore up votes in the meantime, the sources said.

Later, Republicans leaving a closed-door meeting on the speaker debacle confirmed that Jordan informed the GOP conference he is backing McHenry.

It is unclear, according to one source directly familiar, if Jordan will try for a third ballot on the speakership on Thursday. That is up in the air and will depend on how the morning’s conference meeting goes.

The resolution to empower McHenry, the speaker pro tem appointed to the job after Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker on Oct. 3, may also not have the votes, according to this source, so a lot is up in the air.

“It’s the biggest F-U to Republican voters I’ve ever seen,” one conservative Jordan ally, Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said as he left the meeting. “We need to elect a speaker. We were sent here to elect a speaker. It’s a cop out. … It’s a big mistake, and over half the Republicans in that room are against it.”

A senior Democratic source told NBC News that Democrats have been “chatting” with Republicans about the McHenry empowerment plan and that there is respect for a resolution authored by moderate Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, to empower McHenry.

Three Democratic lawmakers told NBC News that Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York has told the caucus he wants to check with Republicans one more time on the terms of what they’re discussing, but that they would only support someone who voted to certify the 2020 election (as McHenry did), and that they agree to support the original debt limit deal struck between the White House and McCarthy.