House Republicans have elected Jim Jordan to lead them in the next Congress, choosing one of Donald Trump’s staunchest allies to steer the party through two years in the minority.
Jordan, the 62-year-old Ohio congressman who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, defeated House Majority Leader Steve Scalise by 106 votes to 73 in a secret ballot on Tuesday. The vote came a week after Democrats swept the midterm elections, winning control of both the House and the Senate and ending Republican rule of Congress.
The contest opened up after Speaker Mike Johnson said he would not seek the minority leader’s job in the next Congress, having led the party through its election defeat. Jordan and Scalise had fought for the speakership before, in 2023, when Scalise beat Jordan in an internal vote before withdrawing from the race.
Jordan is a co-founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and served as its first chairman. He has chaired the Judiciary Committee since January 2023 and previously led the Oversight Committee, where he became one of the president’s most prominent defenders during investigations in Trump’s first term.
His backers argued that his experience running high-profile committee inquiries made him the right person to confront the wave of investigations Democrats have promised into the Trump administration, its family and its business interests. Jordan told colleagues his time chairing Oversight had prepared him for that fight.
He will inherit a historically small Republican conference that is only beginning to reckon with its loss of power as Trump serves out the final two years of his presidency. The scale of the defeat was underlined by the numbers: Democrats are projected to hold around 258 seats in the 435-member House, which incoming speaker Hakeem Jeffries said would be the largest majority for either party this century.
Republicans also kept Tom Emmer of Minnesota as their whip for the next Congress. In the Senate, John Thune was re-elected as Republican leader and will likewise move from majority to minority leader in January.
Jordan’s elevation signals a combative stance towards the incoming Democratic majority. He takes over as the top House Republican when Democrats assume control of the chamber in January, and his first task will be to hold together a diminished conference while Democrats use their majority to pursue investigations and set the legislative agenda.
Sources: Associated Press (https://www.louisianafirstnews.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-house-republicans-are-choosing-their-next-leader-as-they-prepare-to-be-in-the-minority/); Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-republicans-elect-jim-jordan-leader-next-congress-punchbowl-news-2026-11-10/); NPR (https://www.nprillinois.org/2026-11-10/house-republicans-elect-jim-jordan-as-their-next-leader)
