Hardline Conservative Lawmaker Jim Jordan Elected as New GOP House Leader After Bruising Midterm Loss

The chairman of the Judiciary Committee and former Freedom Caucus chief, Congressman Jim Jordan will be the new leader of the House GOP conference, lawmakers and soon-to-be members decided Tuesday. After voting behind closed doors and listening to hours of speeches and question-and-answer sessions, Mr. Jordan carried the vote by a relatively comfortable margin. The leadership election between Mr. Jordan and the House Majority Leader Steve Scalise kicked off the day after the midterm elections last week. Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Wednesday morning that he would be stepping down as head of the Republican conference — a position he has held for more than three years. Messrs. Scalise and Jordan announced their candidacies for leader just hours later. Mr. Jordan won the minority leader position with more than 100 votes out of around 175 which were cast, according to a Republican lawmaker in the room granted anonymity to speak freely. Mr. Scalise has been a member of House leadership for more than a decade, rising through the ranks until eventually becoming the House Majority Leader in 2023. He ran for speaker later that year but was blocked by more conservative lawmakers who did not trust his “America First” bona fides. Mr. Jordan was later chosen to be the nominee for speaker, though he, too, fell flat. Unlike Mr. Scalise, Mr. Jordan forced his colleagues to participate in roll call votes for the speakership on the floor. Dozens of Republicans eventually ended up voting against Mr. Jordan, dooming his candidacy. Mr. Jordan is the founding chairman of the Freedom Caucus, a small but influential group of conservatives born out of the Tea Party movement. He was instrumental in ousting Speaker John Boehner in 2015 but later became a close ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Mr. Johnson. It is unclear if Mr. Johnson will remain in Congress much longer, telling reporters on Monday that he was focused on finishing out the 119th Congress. Asked if he would resign from the House after returning to the backbenches, Mr. Johnson dodged the question and simply said that he was looking forward to supporting Republican efforts to retake the House. “I’m still in charge here ‘til early January,” Mr. Johnson told reporters Monday. “After that, my commitment and my objective is to help my team ensure that the Republican Party has a very successful 120th Congress, and we’ll see how all that develops.” This century, only one ex-speaker — Speaker Nancy Pelosi — has stayed in Congress for more than a year after handing over the gavel.

Hardline Conservative Lawmaker Jim Jordan Elected as New GOP House Leader After Bruising Midterm Loss

Hardline Conservative Lawmaker Jim Jordan Elected as New GOP House Leader After Bruising Midterm Loss

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