House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is officially making a play to lead House Republicans in the minority, two sources told Fox News Digital on Wednesday, launching a bid that could put him in a direct clash with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for the top GOP spot in a chamber Democrats now control.
The move comes less than a day after Republicans lost their House majority in a midterm wave that also flipped the Senate, according to Fox News' Chad Pergram. Jordan had been quietly laying groundwork for a minority leader run for months, campaigning for Republican candidates across the country and building goodwill within the conference. But the path became clearer Wednesday when Johnson announced he will not seek the minority leader post, according to a separate Fox News report.
"Speaker Mike Johnson says he won't run for minority leader, paving the way for a GOP leadership battle between Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan," Fox News reported Wednesday.
Jordan, who has spent six years as the top Republican on Judiciary, has built a national profile as a relentless interrogator of the Biden administration and, more recently, as a chief congressional foil to Democrats promising a wave of investigations into President Donald Trump. He ran for Speaker in October 2023 after a GOP rebellion deposed then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., but fell short of the chamber-wide majority required.
That loss left scars. Moderate Republicans who opposed Jordan's Speaker bid accused his allies of waging an aggressive public pressure campaign that in some cases escalated to death threats, Fox News Digital reported. Jordan would need only a majority of the GOP conference to win minority leader — a significantly lower bar than the 218 votes required for Speaker.
His likely opponent, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., has spent years as a potent fundraiser for Republicans and has crisscrossed the country in support of fellow candidates. Scalise, a senior leadership member, is expected to court the same conference members Jordan is calling.
It is not yet known whether other Republicans will enter the race. The leadership election will be decided by the House GOP conference in the coming weeks, before the new Congress is sworn in.
Our Take
Here's the hard truth, patriots: Tuesday night was a disaster, and Republicans are now picking through the rubble. The Democrats flipped both chambers, and the party that spent the last two years investigating Trump is about to hold the gavels. The question now is who fights back.
Jim Jordan has been the tip of the spear against the administrative state, the FBI, and the Justice Department. He's the guy who didn't flinch when the Left called him names, and he's the guy Democrats fear most in a minority fight. If Republicans want a street fighter who will use every minute of minority power to expose what the Biden regime did, Jordan is the obvious choice.
But Scalise is no lightweight. He's a fundraising machine and a leadership insider, and the establishment wing of the party — the same crowd that undermined Jordan in 2023 — will line up behind him. The closed-door conference vote will tell us whether House Republicans learned anything from Tuesday's shellacking. Do they want a fighter, or do they want business as usual?
Johnson stepping aside is the first domino. Now the base is watching. If the GOP conference picks the safe, establishment pick over the conservative bulldog, the MAGA movement will remember. The minority is a battlefield, folks. Choose your general wisely.
