House Republicans elect Jim Jordan as minority leader after midterm losses

The House vote

House Republicans elected Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio as their leader for the next Congress on Tuesday, 10 November, choosing him by secret ballot at a closed-door meeting. Punchbowl News first reported the result on Tuesday afternoon, and Representative Anna Paulina Luna posted about it on social media. Jordan, 62, defeated Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who had held the No. 2 Republican post since 2014. Two attendees of the vote put the tally at 106 for Jordan and 73 for Scalise.

Jim Jordan106

Steve Scalise73

Jim Jordan

106 votes

Steve Scalise

73 votes

Data from the article text

A party reeling from midterm losses

Republicans lost the House in the 3 November midterm elections and will move into the minority when the new Congress is sworn in in January, the same month Democrats take control of both chambers. Bloomberg described the defeat as the worst midterm electoral drubbing in half a century. Speaker Mike Johnson stood down from leadership after the losses, and the House GOP will not put him forward for the top post again. Many Republicans saw Jordan as the change of direction the party needed, compared with Scalise, who has been in the leadership ranks for more than a decade. The New York Times noted that the conference was already marked by bitter infighting before it lost the House.

Jordan's record and agenda

Jordan chairs the House Judiciary Committee and previously led the Oversight Committee. Axios describes him as a founding member of the hardline Freedom Caucus who ran as a break from the leaders who oversaw the defeat. He first sought the minority leader job in 2018, when he lost to Kevin McCarthy, and his 2023 effort to succeed McCarthy ended with a defeat in a party vote against Scalise. Jordan told colleagues he would mount an aggressive defense against the investigations House Democrats say they will launch into Donald Trump, his family and his administration once the new Congress is sworn in. He is also expected to lead Republican efforts to shield the administration from those probes.

Calls for a delay and the Senate race for leader

Thirty-one Republican National Committee members from 21 states and two territories wrote a letter, shared with POLITICO, urging House and Senate Republicans to postpone their leadership elections by at least 30 days. The signatories included Amy Kremer, Georgia's national committeeperson. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin also called for a delay after last week's elections. The Washington Post reported that Senate Republicans were due to decide on Tuesday whether to vote on re-electing Senator John Thune of South Dakota or push the election back. POLITICO said Thune was expected to be re-elected as the Senate's top Republican.

Open questions for Scalise and the party

It is unclear what comes next for Scalise, who had pitched himself as the lawmaker best placed to help Republicans win the majority in 2028. POLITICO reported that some Republicans doubt a return to the majority is even possible after the losses. The House GOP now faces a minority role in a chamber Democrats will control from January.