Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan will become the top Republican in the U.S. House, after House Republicans elected him their next leader in a closed-door vote, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Jordan, of Urbana, defeated Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana by a vote of 106 to 73, according to The Dispatch, signaling a combative stance by the party as it prepares to serve in the minority under an incoming Democratic majority.
Jordan represents Ohio’s 4th Congressional District, which includes parts of Delaware County and Clark County and a large stretch of central Ohio west to the Indiana border, The Dispatch reported. He has served in Congress since 2007 and currently chairs the House Judiciary Committee, and when Rep. Mike Turner of Dayton leaves office in January, Jordan will become the longest-serving Republican in Ohio’s congressional delegation, according to The Dispatch.
The leadership change follows last week’s midterm elections, in which Republicans lost control of both chambers of Congress, The Dispatch reported. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana declined to run for minority leader in the next Congress, and his second-in-command, Scalise, ran against Jordan for the post instead, according to The Dispatch.
Cheers rang out from the closed-door meeting where Republicans cast secret ballots, The Dispatch reported. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who is in line to become speaker next year, said the 258 confirmed Democrats in the 435-member chamber amount to the largest majority for either party this century, according to The Dispatch.
Jordan, 62, was born in Troy and won multiple state wrestling championships at Graham High School before winning two NCAA Division I wrestling titles at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, The Dispatch reported. He later served as an Ohio State assistant wrestling coach from 1986 to 1994, served in the Ohio House from 1995 to 2000 and in the Ohio Senate from 2001 to 2006, and founded the House Freedom Caucus in 2015, according to The Dispatch.
The Dispatch also noted that Jordan has been a vocal ally of President Donald Trump during both of the president’s terms, first from a seat in the minority during investigations on the House Oversight Committee and now as Judiciary chairman. In 2025, Jordan was deposed as part of a federal lawsuit related to the Dr. Richard Strauss sex abuse scandal at Ohio State, and he has maintained he did not know about Strauss’ actions, according to The Dispatch.
For Ohio, Jordan’s elevation puts a Buckeye lawmaker at the head of the House minority as the new Congress organizes in January. What happens next is the formal start of that Congress, when Jordan will lead House Republicans in opposition to the Democratic majority described by The Dispatch.
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA