Jim Jordan Beats Scalise to Lead House GOP Minority
The Facts
- House Republicans elected Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as minority leader for the next Congress on Tuesday, with the Judiciary Committee chairman defeating House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) by a vote of 106-73 in a closed-door secret ballot.
- In a letter to colleagues, Jordan argued that "offense, not defense, wins elections" and said he was "battle-tested on the oversight front," pointing to his committee experience as Democrats prepare investigations into the Trump administration.
- Scalise, 61, has served in GOP leadership since 2014 and became majority leader in 2023. He was critically wounded in a 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball practice and was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2023, later saying he was in remission.
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The Spin
Republican narrative
House Republicans have chosen a fighter for the fight ahead. Democrats are coming with subpoenas and impeachment threats aimed at the president, and Jim Jordan knows their playbook and has stood up to it for years. After a hard election, the party needs offense, and a conservative who never backs down is the leader to rebuild the majority and defend the voters who sent Trump to Washington.
Democratic narrative
Republicans lost the House and responded by picking the founder of the Freedom Caucus, a loyal Trump enforcer, to lead them, a party that has learned nothing from the voters. Jordan built his career on bad faith kangaroo courts, stonewalling and shamelessly defending the president, and now he leads a shrunken conference into two years of covering for an administration that voters just rebuked.
