House Republicans have picked Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio to lead them in the next Congress, choosing one of President Donald Trump’s most loyal allies to guide a party that just lost control of the House.
Jordan defeated outgoing Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana 106-73 in a closed-door, secret-ballot vote on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press, NBC News and The Hill. When the new Congress convenes in January, Jordan will serve as House minority leader, replacing Speaker Mike Johnson, who said after last week’s midterm losses that he was stepping down from the leadership team.
A pitch built around protecting Trump
Jordan, 62, chairs the House Judiciary Committee and previously led the Oversight Committee. According to NBC News, he pitched colleagues on the idea that his oversight experience would let him combat the investigations newly empowered Democrats have promised to launch into Trump’s administration, family and business ventures.
“I am battle-tested on the oversight front and I know the Democrats’ playbook,” Jordan wrote to his fellow Republicans, as reported by NBC News and The Hill. In the same letter, he warned that the GOP’s old approach “will not cut it against an emboldened and energetic Democratic majority.”
The Hill described Democrats as vowing to conduct exhaustive investigations into Trump, his family and his administration, a role that makes Jordan the first line of defense for his ally in the White House.
From bomb-thrower to party leader
Jordan is a co-founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus and served as its first chairman. The group built its reputation on attacking its own party’s leaders. NBC News noted that he was once considered a conservative bomb-thrower who often clashed with GOP leadership.
This is also a rematch. After Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker in October 2023, both Scalise and Jordan ran to replace him, and both failed to win the 218 votes needed on the House floor. Jordan fell short in repeated floor votes before Johnson ultimately took the gavel.
Leading a much smaller conference
Jordan takes over a conference that was routed in last week’s blue wave. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York is in line to become speaker, and Democrats are set to hold one of the largest House majorities in decades, giving them plenty of room to move their own agenda and run oversight of the administration.
Many Republican lawmakers blamed party leadership for the heavy losses, The Hill reported, fueling a “clean house” mood that helped Jordan beat Scalise, who has been in the top tier of GOP leadership since 2014.
The bottom line: after voters handed Democrats the House, Republicans chose a leader whose central promise is to fight the investigations those voters just made possible.