Momentum is spinning up behind Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan’s bid to become Speaker of the House, though it’s unclear if he’ll actually have enough support to win the speaker’s gavel.
He won the nomination last week 124-81 over Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., in a vote among the Republican conference. But his support, even among Republicans, is wobbly — a subsequent vote, asking conference members if they would support his nomination, sat at 152 in favor and 55 against, far below the 217 total votes he’ll need to win the House floor Tuesday.
The reasons behind the wavering support vary: Some House Republicans are bothered by Jordan’s far-right allies blocking a speakership bid by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. Others still want Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., returned to the role he was ousted from earlier this month.
Some might be swing district Republicans – elected in areas won by President Joe Biden in 2020 – who don’t want to lose voters to supporters of the intensely conservative Jordan. Others might just be turned off by the public pressure campaign being executed by the Ohio Republican and his allies. And more still may be leery of his full-throated support of former President Donald Trump, including his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when he questioned the electoral votes in favor of Biden’s election.
“Jim Jordan was involved in Trump’s conspiracy to steal the election and seize power; he urged that Pence refuse to count lawful electoral votes,” former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., wrote on social media last week. “If [Republicans] nominate Jordan to be Speaker, they will be abandoning the Constitution. They’ll lose the House majority and they’ll deserve to.”
With Democrats all but certain to remain in alignment behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Jordan can only afford to lose a few Republican votes without his speakership bid sinking. And without a speaker, Congress cannot act on key priorities, including funding the government and providing aid to Israel and Ukraine in their respective wars.
Jordan’s road to political fame has been paved by his dyed-in-the-wool conservatism, a far-right brand of Republican politics that skyrocketed his profile during the Trump administration, and especially in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
An Ohio native, Jordan was a championship wrestler at the high school and collegiate levels, and eventually landed a job as assistant coach with Ohio State University’s wrestling program from 1987 to 1995, when he left alongside his his election to the Ohio legislature.
By 2006, after about a decade in the Ohio legislature, Jordan won a seat to Congress. Democratic leadership has suggested that his legislative effectiveness is questionable — Jeffries said Friday that Jordan “hasn’t passed a single bill” through the House in 16 years.
In that span, according to GovTrack, Jordan has sponsored six resolutions and 30 bills, the great majority of which hinge on favored points of culture warriors, including abortion, gay marriage, the Second Amendment and, as of late, government censorship of social media companies.
One such bill, introduced by Jordan in 2013, was the Life at Conception Act, which “declares that the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being beginning at the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual comes into being.”
A Jordan spokesperson suggested to The Washington Post that Jordan hangs his hat on co-sponsoring successful bills, constituent work, “negotiat[ing] legislation directly with the White House and return[ing] millions to the U.S. Treasury from his office budget.”
Of Jordan six proposed resolutions — which are not binding laws so much as statements that go to a vote of the House — only three have passed, including two targeting investigations into “weaponization of the federal government” against conservatives.
That use of the bully pulpit, including his membership on various House committees and subcommittees, has been where Jordan has most obviously flexed his Congressional muscle, especially during the Trump years. He sought to discredit investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and joined efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Jordan was one of the 147 Republicans who voted to reject the 2020 election results in Pennsylvania and Arizona and, according to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, he repeatedly spoke with Trump staffers and confidants to discuss challenging the 2020 election. Jordan would later be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Trump in a private ceremony on Jan. 11, 2020, only days after the riot took place.
Jordan currently sits as the chair of both of the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees the federal judicial and law enforcement system, and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which he sought to create to investigate alleged abuses of executive authority, though his greatest legacy may come from his place as founding chair of the House Freedom Caucus, the hard-right wing of the House GOP that led the ouster of Kevin McCarthy from the speakership.
The Ohio Republican also faces some questions about his past. In 2018, Ohio State began an investigation into Richard Strauss, who was the physician for the school’s athletic programs, including the wrestling team, from 1978-98. Strauss was accused by students, including members of the wrestling team, of sexual misconduct. Former members of the wrestling team have accused Jordan, an assistant coach, of knowing about the abuse and failing to report or act on the information. Jordan denied the allegations, saying he was never aware of any abuse.
