Jim Jordan announces he will run for minority leader, teeing up fight with Scalise

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) announced Wednesday that he will run for minority leader, formally entering the race to lead House Republicans in the next Congress after they suffered a major blow in the midterms.

He will likely face a contentious fight against current House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.).

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on a staff call Wednesday that he will not run for minority leader, according to two GOP staffers.

Jordan wrote in a letter to his Republican colleagues on Wednesday that “for too long, we have operated without a clear plan to survive the hour or the day in front of us.”

“That will not cut it against an emboldened and energetic Democrat majority,” he wrote, adding that he is “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. We need a Leadership team that is active and engaged, forward-thinking and straight shooting,” Jordan wrote.

A key Trump ally, Jordan serves as the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, a perch he’s used over the last several years to investigate President Trump’s political opponents and Democratic officials and more notably referred former Special Counsel Jack Smith to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution this year.

Jordan was set to lose his post leading the House Judiciary Committee regardless of the election’s outcome. He’s termed out on the panel, prompting inquiries about whether he might also seek to return to the House Oversight Committee, a panel he also previously chaired and which is also losing its GOP leader, as Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) won his bid for governor.

He is also a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, a far-right conservative group that has often butted heads with GOP leadership on government spending, and served as its first chairman in 2015. He could attract support from hardliners, many of whom have repeatedly clashed with Johnson and blocked legislation from advancing.

Jordan previously ran for Speaker in 2023, but failed to garner enough support to secure the gavel.

He has demonstrated loyalty to Trump on a number of fronts. During the Biden administration, he demanded Smith as well as top prosecutors in New York and Georgia turn over information about their criminal investigations into the president’s role on Jan. 6.

He also reversed his long-held position on warrantless spy powers earlier this year when Trump called for renewing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act without significant reforms.