Jim Jordan Elected House GOP Minority Leader, Defeating Steve Scalise 106–73 After Midterm Rout
House Republicans chose Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio as their next minority leader on Tuesday, handing the party’s top post in the chamber to one of its most combative conservatives just one week after Democrats swept the midterm elections and ended the GOP’s House majority. Jordan defeated House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana by a vote of 106 to 73 in a closed-door secret ballot, according to Fox News and CNN, a result that puts a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus in charge of a demoralized conference heading into two years in the minority.
The vote, held Tuesday afternoon after a candidate forum in the morning, was a rematch of the bitter 2023 contest between the same two men for the speakership. This time, Jordan won. The 106–73 margin — 59.2 percent to 40.7 percent, out of 179 votes cast — was decisive but not a landslide, reflecting a conference still split between its institutional wing and its conservative flank after a midterm defeat that cost Republicans more than 40 House seats.
Jordan, 62, will take over as minority leader when the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, 2027. Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is expected to become speaker that day, with Democrats projected by NBC News to hold 259 seats. Jordan will also serve as the Republicans’ nominee for speaker on the House floor, a largely symbolic role while Democrats hold the majority.
A vote for confrontation
The result is a clear signal about the kind of opposition House Republicans intend to mount. Jordan built his national profile as a confrontational interrogator on the Judiciary and Oversight committees, and he pitched himself to colleagues as the fighter best equipped to take on a Democratic majority that is expected to launch a wave of investigations into President Donald Trump and his administration.
“I am battle-tested on the oversight front and I know the Democrats’ playbook. I know what it will take to lead our conference in the minority, to stay unified, and to coordinate and calibrate our response to the Democrats’ tactics,” Jordan wrote in a letter to colleagues when he announced his candidacy. That message won over a conference that had spent the past week blaming its own leadership for the scale of the midterm losses.
Scalise, 61, made the opposite case. The Louisiana Republican, who has served in House leadership for more than a decade, argued that his fundraising network, political operation and years of traveling to swing districts made him the better choice to lead Republicans back to the majority. In his letter to colleagues, Scalise proposed creating task forces to gather input from voters in “Real America” and use it to shape the party’s agenda on issues including Social Security and Medicare.
But after Speaker Mike Johnson announced on November 4 that he would not seek the minority leader’s job, much of the conference’s anger shifted to Scalise. Many members believed that someone at the top of the leadership team had to be held accountable for a defeat that was far worse than party leaders had expected, and that the moment called for a change. Scalise has been in House leadership for more than a decade but has never held the No. 1 job. Now, he will not get that opportunity.
President Donald Trump stayed out of the race, telling reporters he would not take sides, according to Reuters.
From “legislative terrorist” to party leader
Jordan’s rise to the top of the conference is a remarkable turn for a lawmaker who spent much of his congressional career battling his own party’s establishment. Former Speaker John Boehner once called him a “legislative terrorist,” and Jordan was for years viewed by many colleagues as someone who cared only about those who aligned with him politically and was willing to burn the building down to get his way. He co-founded the House Freedom Caucus in 2015 to push Republican leaders to the right, and the group became a persistent thorn in the side of successive speakers.
That reputation cost him the speakership in 2023. After a small group of Republicans joined Democrats to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy in October of that year, Scalise beat Jordan 113 to 99 in the conference’s closed-door vote to become the party’s speaker nominee. Scalise withdrew a day later after it became clear he could not win the 217 votes needed on the House floor. Jordan then became the nominee, but lost three consecutive floor votes — winning 200, then 199, then 194 votes — as moderate Republicans refused to support him. The deadlock eventually opened the way for Johnson to emerge as the consensus choice.
Since that failure, Jordan has worked deliberately to reinvent himself from a conservative bomb thrower into a team player. He has traveled to hundreds of districts, raised millions of dollars for his colleagues, for candidates and for the National Republican Congressional Committee, and chaired the Judiciary Committee since 2023. The effort paid off on Tuesday: members who once distrusted him chose him to lead them.
Jordan has represented Ohio’s 4th congressional district since 2007. Before entering Congress, he was a champion college wrestler and wrestling coach. Scalise has represented Louisiana’s 1st congressional district since 2008, served as House majority whip from 2014, as minority whip from 2019 to 2022, and as majority leader since 2023.
What Jordan inherits
The job Jordan is taking on is among the hardest in Washington. He will lead a fractured conference that just suffered its worst defeat in decades into the minority, where Republicans will have little power to set the agenda. Now that Democrats won control of Congress in the midterms, they will control the committees, the investigations and the legislative schedule.
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The Democratic majority is expected to move quickly. Rep. Thomas Massie has already moved to force a House vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Democratic leaders have signaled broad investigations into the Trump administration. Trump himself has questioned whether the 2026 midterms were honest, blaming voting machines without evidence. Jordan’s first test will be coordinating the Republican response to those probes — the very role he argued he was built for.
At the same time, Jordan will have to navigate issues on which his own instincts have often clashed with the demands of governing. He will be tasked with helping avoid a government shutdown and negotiating an increase in the debt ceiling, something he has traditionally insisted must come with major spending cuts. As minority leader, he will not be the one cutting deals with the White House and Senate Democrats — that falls to the speaker and the Senate — but his conference’s votes may still be needed, and his willingness to compromise will be watched closely.
There is also the question of rebuilding. The minority leader is traditionally responsible for recruiting candidates and raising the money to win back the majority, and Scalise’s supporters argued during the race that Jordan has little experience running a large-scale political operation. Jordan’s allies counter that his national profile and fundraising since 2023 show he can do the job, and that the party needs a leader who can energize its base after a demoralizing loss.
The rest of the leadership team
The leader’s race was not the only contest on Tuesday’s ballot. Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota faced a challenge from Rep. August Pfluger of Texas, who chairs the Republican Study Committee, for the No. 2 post in the minority. Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain of Michigan faced two challengers, Reps. Erin Houchin of Indiana and Greg Steube of Florida, the latter of whom criticized the current leadership team for choosing “accommodation over conviction.” The chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee was also contested, between Reps. Rudy Yakym of Indiana and Brian Jack of Georgia, after the incumbent, Rep. Richard Hudson, lost his re-election bid. Results of those races had not been reported as of publication.
The Senate was also holding leadership votes on Tuesday, with Republican Leader John Thune running unopposed despite a push by five senators to delay the vote until the party had examined its midterm losses. The outcome had not been reported as of publication. House Democrats will choose their leaders next week, and Senate Democrats plan to vote in early December.
Why this matters
Leadership elections are usually internal party business, but this one will shape American politics for the next two years. The minority leader is the public face of the opposition in the House, the person who frames the party’s response to the majority’s agenda and who sets the tone for the next election cycle.
Jordan’s election tells the country what kind of opposition to expect. Where Scalise would have offered continuity and a focus on rebuilding through fundraising and candidate recruitment, Jordan offers confrontation — a leader who has promised to fight the Democratic majority’s investigations head-on. His supporters believe that is what the moment demands after a midterm defeat they blame on a leadership that was too accommodating. His critics, including some in his own conference, worry that a leader known for scorched-earth tactics will struggle to broaden the party’s appeal in the swing districts it must win back to regain the majority.
The next test comes quickly. When the new Congress convenes on January 3, Jordan will take his seat as minority leader and Jeffries will take the speaker’s gavel. The investigations, the spending fights and the 2028 campaign will follow soon after.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the new House Republican minority leader?
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, 62, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus. He was elected by the House Republican Conference on November 10, 2026, defeating House Majority Leader Steve Scalise 106–73 in a secret ballot.
When does Jim Jordan take over as minority leader?
Jordan takes over when the 120th Congress is sworn in on January 3, 2027. Until then, Speaker Mike Johnson remains the top House Republican, and Jordan remains chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Who will be the next speaker of the House?
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York is expected to become speaker on January 3, 2027, after Democrats won the House majority in the 2026 midterm elections. NBC News projects Democrats will hold 259 seats in the new Congress.
Why did Steve Scalise lose the leadership race?
Scalise, the incumbent majority leader, ran as the continuity candidate, arguing his fundraising network and experience made him best suited to lead Republicans back to the majority. But many members believed someone in the leadership team had to be held accountable for the midterm defeat, and Jordan’s pitch on oversight won over a majority of the conference.
House Republicans will spend the next two years in the minority under a leader who has spent his career fighting his own party’s establishment as often as he has fought Democrats. Whether that choice helps them win back the House in 2028, or deepens the divisions the midterm defeat exposed, will be the central question of the next Congress.
Sources: Fox News; CNN; The Washington Sun; Reuters; The Hill; Political.org
