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Jim Jordan Wins House GOP Leadership Race 106-73World
Jim Jordan beat Steve Scalise 106-73 in a secret ballot to lead House Republicans into the minority, after the party’s heavy midterm losses.
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House Republicans have elected Jim Jordan of Ohio to lead their party in the next Congress, choosing one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies to guide a diminished conference into the minority. Mr Jordan defeated Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the outgoing House majority leader, by 106 votes to 73 in a closed-door secret ballot on Tuesday.
The contest was called after Republicans lost control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections on 3 November, a defeat that cost the party more than 40 House seats, according to US media reports. Speaker Mike Johnson, also of Louisiana, decided not to seek the minority leader’s post after the losses, leaving the race to Mr Jordan and Mr Scalise.
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Mr Jordan, 62, is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a co-founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, which he led as its first chairman. He has served in the House since 2007 and built his reputation as one of the most combative figures in the Republican Party, frequently clashing with Democratic administrations and party leaders alike.
Mr Scalise, 61, has held senior Republican leadership posts since 2014, serving first as party whip and then as majority leader since 2023. He was widely praised by colleagues, including by Mr Trump, after recovering from serious injuries sustained in a shooting at a congressional baseball practice in 2017. The two men had faced each other before, when both sought the speakership after Kevin McCarthy was removed from the post a little more than three years ago.
Mr Trump said he was staying out of the leadership race. Mr Jordan’s victory is nevertheless seen as a sign that the party’s base wants a confrontational approach as Democrats prepare to take control of the House in January and to investigate the Trump administration during the president’s final two years in office.
Republicans also elected Tom Emmer of Minnesota as whip, the number two position in the party’s House leadership. Democrats are due to hold their own leadership elections next week. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the current Democratic leader, is expected to become the next Speaker, with Democrats holding 258 confirmed seats.
Mr Jordan will inherit a historically small Republican conference that is only beginning to come to terms with its loss of power. His central task will be to hold the party together in opposition and to lead the effort to win back the House majority in the 2028 elections, a steep climb given the scale of the Democratic victories in the midterms.
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