House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) defeated Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) in a 106-73 vote on Tuesday to become House Minority Leader in the next Congress.
The vote came after a candidate forum Tuesday morning, where both men made their pitches to the remaining conference and incoming members in the wake of last week’s massive losses that cost Republicans the House.
Jordan pitched himself as the fighter Republicans need to take on Democrats from the minority, while his supporters made the case that after last week’s losses, leadership needed a change at the top.
It was a nail-biter going in, with both camps feeling confident heading into the vote. With the election being conducted via secret ballot and a sizable number of freshmen going in undecided, whip counts were less reliable than they’d be for a speaker vote on the floor with both camps feeling confident at the start if the day.
Lawmakers whose races still haven’t been called were also allowed to vote.
Jordan will succeed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) as the top Republican spot in the lower chamber. Johnson opted against seeking the top Republican spot following last Tuesday’s election results.
The vote went ahead despite some calls for the election to be delayed, with House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) having called for the date to be pushed back to allow for a post-mortem on Election Day on what went wrong before picking who leads them next.
The Club for Growth backed Jordan, but his critics worried he’d double down on the Trump-aligned policies a lot of members blamed for last week’s losses.
Trump opted against endorsing in the race, declining twice to pick a side when asked.
This was a rematch three years in the making. After Kevin McCarthy was booted as speaker in 2023, Scalise beat Jordan in a conference vote for the nomination, but dropped out a day later when it became clear he couldn’t get to 218 on the floor. Jordan then won the nomination but came up short in three floor votes before the conference dropped him too.
Republicans ultimately decided he was the right man for the job this time around.
This is a developing story.
