House Republicans opted for a new face at the top of their ranks on Tuesday, electing Rep. Jim Jordan as the new minority leader for the 120th Congress after Republicans suffered massive losses in last week’s midterm elections.
The Ohio Republican defeated incumbent Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., in a closed-door, secret-ballot election. The final score was 106-73.
“Over the next two years, House Republicans will fight for American families. Democrats will deliver more government. We will deliver more freedom,” Jordan said after an hours-long process.
The two men worked the phones before making their presentations at a candidate forum in the Capitol Visitor Center auditorium Tuesday morning. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced last week that he would not seek a leadership position in the new Congress, which will be in session Jan. 3.
“Obviously Jim and I know each other, but I have a proven track record of bringing people together,” Scalise said before the vote, trying to highlight his experience, including more than a decade on the leadership team, including a stint as whip.
As House Republicans filed out of the candidates’ forum to take breaks or take phone calls, one member, granted anonymity to discuss a private session, said Scalise and Jordan “both have strengths, but they both have flaws.” Each made an unsuccessful bid to become president in 2023 following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy, before the gavel ultimately fell to Johnson.
Refusing to reveal who would get his vote, the MP said: “I won’t talk about a secret vote, but I know who I think is best placed to lead us. »
The new minority conference also selected other leaders Tuesday.
Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota resisted Texas Rep. August Pfluger’s challenge to become minority whip in January, despite some grumbling about how close the votes were this year.
“We need to revamp our whip operation,” Texas Rep. Nathaniel Moran said Tuesday morning, noting “the number of times we have been delayed either by discharge petitions or botched votes.”
“These were things that should not have happened in the majority,” Moran said in publicly endorsing Pfluger for whip.
But Emmer projected confidence after his whip victory, likening the moment to when Republicans were down after their 2018 defeats only to rebound a few years later.
“To our colleagues on the left, enjoy this honeymoon, because on January 3, 2027, you will regret putting your name on a ballot,” he said at a news conference, adding that Republicans under his leadership would denounce the “empty promises” Democrats made to voters and push back against what he called their “radical” agenda.
In the day’s only three-way race, conference president Lisa McClain of Michigan defeated Reps. Erin Houchin of Indiana and Greg Steube of Florida to retain her spot.
“We had a spirited leadership election. There were important conversations about the future of our conference, and I listened,” McClain said during the press conference.
In the race to lead the House Republicans’ campaign arm, Rep. Brian Jack of Georgia defeated Rep. Rudy Yakym of Indiana, seen as an up-and-coming member of the Ways and Means Committee. That means Jack will take on a huge share of the arduous task of candidate selection and fundraising for the 2028 cycle as he leads the National Republican Congressional Committee.
“A difficult choice”
But most of the attention heading into Tuesday’s closed-door proceedings was focused on the race for minority leader.
Johnson, the incumbent speaker, refused to endorse any candidate but had encouraging words for Jordan after his victory. “He’s going to do a great job. He’s a good friend and a trusted brother,” he said.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said it was a “tough choice for the conference to make,” but he was not disappointed by the choice. “He was an exceptionally competent president in both oversight and judiciary. He’s excellent in an interview,” Cole said of Jordan. “He has boundless energy and determination.”
Jordan’s victory means he will form a political and legal team with new White House chief of staff Stephen Miller to fend off a number of investigations that House Democrats have planned into President Donald Trump, some of his second-term officials and his business-minded family members.
Democrats will have more than 250 seats in the House, with a number of races still uncalled. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who is expected to become the next House speaker, told reporters last week that he predicted Democrats would pick up at least 255 seats when all ballots were counted and verification processes were completed.
“This is a historic majority in the 21st century,” Jeffries told reporters in Washington, D.C., the day after the midterm elections. “The American people chose economics over extremism. The American people chose hope over hate. The American people chose common sense over corruption, chaos and cruelty. The American people chose the Democrats in the House of Representatives because they want to see a radical change in direction.”
Political analysts have predicted an internal battle within the GOP over the direction the party takes over the next two years — and after Trump leaves office in January 2029.
The Institute for Legislative Analysis, a nonprofit organization that advocates to reduce the size and influence of government, released an evaluation of an election study Monday. His calculations led ILA to back Emmer and three new faces: Jordan, Steube and Jack.
“It’s clear that many Republican voters feel like their representatives in Washington don’t represent them,” Ryan McGowan, the institute’s CEO, said in a statement. “It will be interesting to see whether House Republicans respond by choosing leaders…whose electoral records are much more closely aligned with the party’s conservative base.”
Late last week, several Republican sources, who requested anonymity to be honest, said they expected a close result between Scalise and Jordan, adding that Emmer was working hard on the phone to remain whip. One said having Scalise or Jordan at the top of the conference, with the hope that Emmer stays on as whip, “won’t amount to much change at the top.”
The new leadership team will take office on January 3, when Democrats are expected, in part, to use their large majority to target anything related to Trump 2.0. The same Republican source said the majority party “will inevitably pursue impeachment proceedings between now and the August recess, despite its disciplined statements to the media before the election.”
Trump responded in the affirmative when a “60 Minutes” correspondent asked him in an interview broadcast Sunday night if he could work with Democrats, in case they also aggressively investigate his team.
“Well, I did it for four years,” the president said of his first term. “They indicted me twice. And some say it worked to my advantage.”
Nina Heller, Michael Macagnone and Samantha Freeman contributed to this report.
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