House Republicans elected Jim Jordan of Ohio to lead them in the next Congress on Tuesday, choosing the chairman of the Judiciary Committee over the man who currently runs the floor for them, Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
The conference voted behind closed doors. The tally was 106 to 73, according to sources familiar with it cited by ABC News and CBS News. Jordan takes the post of minority leader when the 120th Congress convenes in January 2027.
A leadership race the midterms forced
The contest followed an election that moved the House decisively away from the party. Republicans lost more than 40 seats, according to CBS News. ABC News counted the incoming chamber at 254 Democrats to 166 Republicans, with 15 races still undecided when the conference met.
Speaker Mike Johnson announced he would not stand for minority leader, removing the most senior figure in the party's House hierarchy from the race before it began and leaving a straight contest between the Judiciary chairman and the majority leader.
Jordan had made the case that the problem was not messaging but planning. "For too long, we have operated without a clear plan to survive the hour or the day in front of us," he wrote in his letter to colleagues. After the vote he narrowed it to the two years ahead: "Over the next two years, House Republicans will fight for American families."
Scalise, in his own letter, had leaned on experience of hard stretches. "This is no doubt a challenging time for our conference, but overcoming adversity is nothing new to me," he wrote.
The rest of the table
- Minority whip: Tom Emmer of Minnesota, who beat August Pfluger of Texas.
- Conference chair, the No. 3 job: Lisa McClain of Michigan, who beat Erin Houchin of Indiana and Greg Steube of Florida.
- National Republican Congressional Committee chair: Brian Jack of Georgia, replacing Richard Hudson of North Carolina, who lost his own re-election bid.
Jordan's win is a shift in kind rather than degree. Scalise has held elected leadership posts for more than a decade; Jordan built his standing on the Judiciary Committee and on a wing of the conference that spent much of that decade at odds with its leadership. The conference handed the job to the latter.
What the new leader does not yet control
The vote decides January, not December. Johnson remains speaker and Scalise remains majority leader through the lame-duck session now under way, including the December 11 government funding deadline. Jordan inherits the minority only once the new Congress is sworn in.
In the Senate
Senate Republicans, who are down at least seven seats with two races undecided, kept their leadership intact. John Thune was re-elected leader by acclamation, with John Barrasso staying on as whip and Tom Cotton as conference chair. Bernie Moreno of Ohio was elected chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, replacing Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Thune put the week plainly: "the election result was not what we had hoped for."
Reporting from ABC News, CBS News and Just Security.
