WASHINGTON — Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, became the first lawmaker to announce a bid for speaker of the House on Wednesday, one day after Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the top job in a historic vote.
Asked by reporters in the Capitol whether he was running, Jordan replied unequivocally: "Yes."
“We need to unite the conference,” said Jordan, who had just met with Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., a likely rival for speaker, to inform him of his decision.
Later Wednesday, Jordan sent a letter to colleagues touting his work on immigration and oversight issues on the Judiciary Committee and asking for their support.
“Now is the time for our Republican conference to come together to keep our promises to Americans. The problems we face are challenging, but they are not insurmountable. We can focus on the changes that improve the country and unite us in offering real solutions," Jordan wrote. "But no matter what we do, we must do it together as a conference. I respectfully ask for your support for Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
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Jordan said he made his decision after many of his GOP colleagues reached out urging him to run. A source familiar with Jordan's thinking said that he has repeatedly said choosing the next speaker "will be a decision for the conference" and that now the conference is asking.
Jordan "highly respects Scalise and other candidates running," the source added.
Minutes after his announcement, Jordan received a pair of quick endorsements. "I support Jim Jordan for Speaker," conservative Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote on X.
GOP Rep. Jim Banks, who is running for the Senate in Indiana, said, "We need a conservative fighter to stand up strong to the Biden White House and Democrat Senate, and I can't think of anyone better than Jim Jordan."
Jordan has been one of Donald Trump's top allies on Capitol Hill, having defended the former president as he faced two impeachment investigations in the House and now serving as one of the GOP's leaders in the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
In recent months, Jordan, a former NCAA wrestling champ and coach, had become a team player and close ally of McCarthy, R-Calif., and his leadership team. It was McCarthy who pushed for Jordan to get the top GOP slot on the Oversight Committee and later the powerful Judiciary Committee.
But Jordan began his career in Washington as a conservative bomb thrower, serving in 2015 as the founding chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, whose members forced then-Speaker John Boehner, a fellow Ohioan, into an early retirement.
Because of that reputation, some moderate members of the GOP conference could balk at a Jordan speakership. And because of the GOP's razor-thin majority, it would take just five Republicans to block Jordan in a formal speaker vote on the House floor, because Democrats are expected to unite behind Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
