Washington — Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, whose 4th Congressional District includes Mercer County, was elected Tuesday to lead House Republicans, beating House Majority Leader Steve Scalise 106-73 in a closed-door secret ballot.
Jordan will serve as minority leader — and the party’s nominee for speaker — when the 120th Congress convenes Jan. 3, 2027, succeeding Speaker Mike Johnson as the chamber’s top Republican.
The vote came exactly one week after the Nov. 3 midterm elections, when Democrats won control of the House — flipping more than 40 Republican seats — and the Senate. Democrats are on track to hold roughly 260 House seats, their largest majority in 35 years, according to NBC News. In Ohio alone, Democrats flipped three congressional seats and a U.S. Senate seat. Jordan himself cruised to reelection, winning nearly two-thirds of the vote in his heavily Republican district.
Why the job was open
Johnson announced Nov. 4, the day after the election, that he would not seek the minority leader post in the next Congress. He is staying in the House, representing his Louisiana district.
That set up a contest between the two men who have fought over the job before: Scalise, the current majority leader and the establishment candidate, and Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a co-founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, where he served as its first chairman.
Jordan, 62, ran as the candidate of change. He was not part of the formal leadership team in the last Congress, and he pitched colleagues on a more aggressive posture against the incoming Democratic majority. In a letter to colleagues, he wrote: “For too long, we have operated without a clear plan to survive the hour or the day in front of us. That will not cut it against an emboldened and energetic Democratic party” — a pointed critique of the leadership team led by Johnson and Scalise.
President Donald Trump did not take sides in the race, telling reporters he would not get involved in picking the next House GOP leader. Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana endorsed Jordan on Nov. 5, saying the party needed new leaders after its midterm losses.
What comes next
Jordan inherits a smaller, bruised conference — 179 Republicans voted in Tuesday’s ballot — and the job of rebuilding it. As minority leader, he will be in charge of recruiting candidates to win seats back in 2028, while serving as the party’s top defender as Democrats prepare a long list of investigations into the Trump administration in its final two years. Jordan warned colleagues of the coming Democratic oversight efforts in making his case.
House Republicans also chose Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota as minority whip.
Jordan, of Urbana, was first elected to Congress in 2006 and took office in January 2007 after serving in both chambers of the Ohio Legislature. He became chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in January 2023 and ran for speaker in October 2023 after a GOP rebellion deposed former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, falling short of the votes needed.
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