House Republicans elected Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan as their minority leader for the next Congress, defeating Majority Leader Steve Scalise in a secret-ballot vote of 106 to 73, according to Republican lawmakers. The vote follows the party's election losses, which handed Democrats roughly 260 seats.
House Republicans on Tuesday elected Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan as their minority leader for the next Congress, defeating Majority Leader Steve Scalise, two Republican lawmakers said. The vote was held behind closed doors and by secret ballot, and the tally was 106-73, according to the two lawmakers in the room.
The election came after a Democratic wave swept Republicans from power in last week's midterms, a historic drubbing that handed Democrats roughly 260 seats — the largest majority in 35 years. Outgoing Speaker Mike Johnson had said a day after the rout that he was stepping down from the leadership team.
Jordan, 62, is a fervent supporter of President Donald Trump and had pitched to GOP colleagues that his past role chairing the Oversight Committee would allow him to combat the spate of 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 colleagues, according to the account of the vote.
Jordan's victory signals that House Republicans wanted a clean break from the Johnson political apparatus following the election drubbing. Scalise, who argued he could best unify factions of House Republicans against the "socialists" coming to Washington, has served in Republican leadership positions since John Boehner was speaker, while Jordan represented more of a change.
It is a remarkable ascent for Jordan, who has spent two decades in Congress and had once been considered a conservative bomb-thrower who often clashed with the GOP leadership team, though he has become more of a team player in recent years as he led House committees. He started climbing the ranks after the Tea Party wave swept Republicans into power in the 2010 midterms, winning the race to lead the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus of conservatives on Capitol Hill.
Jordan and a handful of other conservative hardliners then formed the House Freedom Caucus, a smaller, more nimble and more conservative caucus that aimed to pull the GOP Conference further to the right. Among that group were Ron DeSantis, who would go on to become Florida governor, and Mark Meadows and Mick Mulvaney, who would both serve as Trump's chiefs of staff. At the HFC, Jordan famously tangled with then-Speaker John Boehner, a fellow Ohio Republican, and caused headaches for Boehner's successor, then-Speaker Paul Ryan.
After Republicans lost the majority in the 2018 wave election, Jordan challenged California Republican Kevin McCarthy for minority leader but was easily defeated, 159 to 43. Also in 2018, former students at Ohio State University, where Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach, brought forward allegations of sexual abuse by the team's doctor. Jordan has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the abuse by Dr. Richard Strauss, who abused hundreds of men over decades, according to an independent investigation; Strauss died in 2005. In July 2018, a group of former wrestlers accused Jordan of failing to stop the abuse, saying it was common knowledge.
After McCarthy resigned as speaker in October 2023, both Scalise and Jordan ran to succeed him but failed to secure the required 218 votes, and Johnson, then the little-known and low-ranking vice chairman of the GOP Conference, catapulted to the speakership. In other races Tuesday, Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota fended off an insurgent challenge from Rep. August Pfluger of Texas for the GOP whip job, and House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain of Michigan beat back challenges from Erin Houchin of Indiana and Greg Steube of Florida.
Senate Republicans also held their own closed-door vote Tuesday to pick their leaders, re-electing their current leadership slate after a small group of conservatives had pushed to delay the election. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota will serve as minority leader in the next Congress, alongside John Barrasso of Wyoming as minority whip and Tom Cotton as chair of the Republican conference, according to Thune spokesman Ryan Wrasse, who said all three were elected by acclamation.
Republican lawmakers; House Republicans; Senate Republicans; Thune spokesman Ryan Wrasse