Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is moving fast to claim a leadership post in the new House minority after Republicans lost control of the chamber Tuesday.
Jordan will announce Wednesday morning that he’s running for House minority leader, Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman reported.
“The Ohio Republican is the first person in the minority leader race,” Sherman wrote. “JORDAN will make the case that the leadership needs new blood, investigations are his specialty.”
Sherman noted that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) “have not said what they will do yet.”
Johnson acknowledged the loss overnight. “The American people have made the same decision that has been made in all but two midterms in the last century,” he said in a statement, according to The New York Times.
Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a founder of the House Freedom Caucus, has led some of the GOP’s most aggressive investigations of Democrats and the Biden administration. He ran for speaker in 2023 after Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy, but he lost three floor votes when holdouts in his own party refused to back him.
His pitch comes as House Democrats prepare to take over the investigative gavels. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), who is poised to chair the House Oversight Committee, warned the administration in a statement Tuesday night: “Lawyer up.”