Republicans elect Jim Jordan as House minority leader after midterm defeats | Jim Jordan

Republicans elected Rep. Jim Jordan as their new House leader, putting a staunch Donald Trump supporter at the helm of their conference as they deal with the fallout from massive losses in last week’s midterm elections.

Jordan will be the minority leader in the new Congress that begins next year, where Democrats will have their largest margins in the House and Senate in years. He will be charged with shaping the party’s strategy in the face of waves of investigations Democrats have promised to open into Trump’s second administration, as well as their promises of an ambitious legislative agenda, whether or not it has the president’s support.

“Over the next two years, Republicans in the House of Representatives will fight for American families,” Jordan said in a brief speech to reporters after his election. “When Democrats offer more government, we will offer more freedom, and we will take this fight in committee, on the field and on the stump every day.”

The Ohio lawmaker is a longtime leader of the right in the U.S. House of Representatives and gained national prominence defending Trump against Democrats’ past efforts to hold him accountable. In 2023, Jordan briefly ran for president after dissident Republicans removed Kevin McCarthy as House leader, but his candidacy collapsed after it became clear he did not have enough support.

House Republicans elected Jordan over Steve Scalise, who is the majority leader in the current Congress. After heavy defeats last week in the midterm elections, current House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he would not remain as party leader and has not yet committed to serving out the remainder of his term.

“Jim was one of my mentors when I came to Congress 10 years ago, and we worked together all those years,” Johnson said. “He’s always been seen as a leader by the conference and he’s going to do an extraordinary job.”

Jordan will serve alongside John Thune, the Senate Republican leader who was also re-elected Tuesday during his conference.

“I am proud of what this Republican team has accomplished together, and we remain united in our commitment to advancing conservative priorities, working with President Trump and our House colleagues, and holding the line against Democrats’ efforts to implement their far-left liberal agenda,” Thune said in a statement.

Elections for both positions took place behind closed doors.

Ahead of the Republican Party meeting in the House of Representatives, many spoke of the need for a change in strategy, after two years of trying to meet Trump’s demands with one of the smallest majorities in history, only to have voters permanently removed from power.

“I want someone to send a message and admit that … we made mistakes,” said Tim Burchett, a conservative lawmaker from Tennessee, who declined to say who he would vote for.

Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said she supported Jordan and criticized Scalise for not fighting hard enough to pass right-wing priorities in the House.

“If you have a play and it’s destroyed, you don’t put the same people back in charge who were involved in executing that failed play,” she said.

First elected in 2006, Jordan helped found the right-wing House Freedom Caucus in 2015 and served as its first chair. Seen almost always in shirtsleeves, his profile rose during Trump’s first term, particularly after Democrats regained control of the lower house of Congress midterms in 2018. As the top Republican on the Oversight and then Judiciary committees, Jordan took forceful stances against Democrats’ efforts to investigate Trump and was a member of the president’s defense team during his first impeachment.

Jordan echoed Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 election and defended the investigation into Hunter Biden during the final two years of Joe Biden’s term. Since Trump’s return to the White House, Jordan has used his role as chairman of the Judiciary Committee to pursue allegations of “weaponization” by prosecutors who investigated Trump, including Jack Smith, the special counsel who oversaw federal cases.

Democrats decried Jordan’s nomination as a sign that the party is doubling its efforts to combat extremism, with Virginia Rep. Don Beyer noting that Jordan’s election came days after Trump named immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as chief of staff.

“Republicans have learned absolutely nothing from what happened a week ago and are responding by elevating their most extreme voices to positions of power,” he said.