House Republicans have chosen Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio as their next leader, elevating one of the party's most combative conservatives to steer a diminished conference into the minority. Jordan defeated House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana in a closed-door secret ballot on Tuesday, winning 106 votes to Scalise's 73, according to multiple reports from inside the room.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was elected House Republican leader on Tuesday, November 10, 2026. (Official portrait)
A Party Picking Up the Pieces
The vote came just seven days after the November 3 midterm elections, in which Democrats flipped more than 40 Republican seats on their way to winning back the House majority — and the Senate as well. It was a staggering defeat for a party that had controlled both chambers, and it set off a scramble for new leadership before the next Congress is seated in January. The job opened because Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana announced on November 4 that he will not seek the minority leader post in the next Congress. Johnson is staying in the House, but he has declined to say whether he plans to serve out his full term, despite having won reelection.
Cheers rang out from the closed-door meeting in the Capitol Visitor Center when the result was announced, according to the Columbus Dispatch. The voting body consisted of incumbent House Republicans and Republican members-elect, casting secret ballots — meaning no one in the room had to reveal how they voted.
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| House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who lost the vote for House Republican leader to Rep. Jim Jordan, 106-73. (Official portrait) |
The Two Candidates
The two men on the ballot offered sharply different styles of leadership, and Republicans said they were ready to turn the page on their losses and start rebuilding to regain voters' trust. But first, they had to choose between continuity and confrontation.
In Scalise, 61, House Republicans would have been choosing a form of continuity. He has been the No. 2 House Republican since 2023 and has served in broader Republican leadership roles for more than 10 years. He is seen as more moderate than Jordan, and in a letter to colleagues announcing his candidacy, the close Trump ally said his approach to the job would be "conservative and consensus-driven."
"My number one goal as Republican Leader will be to win back the majority and I expect you to hold me accountable to that mission," Scalise wrote. "To succeed, we will need to be effective in both the oversight and legislative fights ahead, but we will also need to lay out a clear and optimistic vision for America."
In Jordan, 62, Republicans chose a veteran of both the House Oversight and House Judiciary committees — two panels poised to play a central role in the new Congress as Democrats plan a long list of investigations into President Trump and his administration. A former college wrestling coach known for his pugilistic style, Jordan pitched an aggressive posture to his colleagues, writing that "offense, not defense, wins elections."
"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 Democratic party," Jordan said in his letter to colleagues, taking a swipe at the House leadership team led by Johnson and Scalise.
"I am battle-tested on the oversight front and I know the Democrats' playbook," he added.
Jordan, first elected to the House in 2006, co-founded the House Freedom Caucus in 2015 and served as its first chairman. The group, made up of the chamber's most conservative lawmakers, became known for challenging Republican leaders from the right — and Jordan built his national reputation doing exactly that.
The contest was a rematch from 2023. Back then, Jordan and Scalise were vying to succeed McCarthy after he was removed as speaker. After multiple candidates failed to secure enough votes, Republicans ultimately voted for Johnson. Tuesday's win was Jordan's third attempt at the party's top House job, roughly eight years after he first launched a bid for it.
How the Vote Works
Tuesday's election was an internal party vote, not a vote of the full House. Only members of the House Republican Conference take part, casting secret ballots in a closed-door meeting. Because the ballots are secret, members can vote against the wishes of party leaders or the president without public consequences — a feature that can make the outcome harder to predict than a public floor vote.
The threshold is a simple majority of all House Republicans, far lower than the majority of the full House required to elect a speaker. The candidates made their cases to colleagues at a forum on Tuesday morning before the afternoon vote.
President Donald Trump, who endorsed Jordan during the 2023 leadership fight, stayed out of this race, as did Johnson. Trump told reporters he would not get involved in picking the next House Republican leader, though his influence over the conference remains considerable.
House Republicans also voted to keep Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota as their whip in the next Congress. Emmer beat back a challenge from Representative August Pfluger of Texas, the head of the Republican Study Committee.
Across the Capitol, Senate Republicans tapped John Thune of South Dakota for a second two-year term as their conference leader on Tuesday, following what the New York Post described as a contentious, hours-long meeting. Some Senate Republicans had urged delaying the vote to reflect on the midterm losses, but the leadership election went ahead as planned.
What This Means
The leadership vote is the first step in a broader reckoning for House Republicans, and the choice of Jordan over Scalise is, in effect, a choice between two theories of how a minority party should operate — and the conference picked the more combative one.
Jordan's pitch was built on combat. As chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a veteran of the oversight wars, he argues that Republicans need an aggressive, offense-first posture against what he describes as an emboldened Democratic Party. His supporters say the party lost because it lacked a clear plan and a fighting edge. As one person familiar with Jordan's thinking told CNN: "[Trump] is still the leader of our party. We are going to be fighting tooth and nail to make sure his agenda continues to stay implemented."
Scalise's pitch was built on experience and unity — and on a willingness to work across the aisle where possible. He told members he would seek out ways to work with Democrats to achieve Republican priorities. But the person close to Jordan countered that Democrats had no reason to work with Republicans: "They have the numbers, they don't need us. We need to be uniting as a team."
The choice signals that House Republicans plan to play hardball against the incoming Democratic majority, which will arrive with what incoming Speaker Hakeem Jeffries has called the largest majority for either party this century — 258 confirmed Democrats in the 435-member chamber, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Democrats have pledged a robust oversight agenda targeting the Trump White House, and Jordan, of all people, knows that playbook from the other side.
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| The U.S. Capitol in Washington, where House Republicans voted behind closed doors on Tuesday to choose their next leader. |
What Happens Next
Jordan will take over a smaller, bruised conference in January, when the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2027. The immediate task is organizational — filling committee posts and setting a legislative strategy. The longer task is political: rebuilding trust with voters who, just a week ago, handed the party one of its worst defeats in years. Tuesday's vote is where that rebuild begins.
The rest of the lame-duck session is already crowded with unfinished business. Congress returned on Monday for its final session of the year, with a government funding deadline looming on December 11. The House was also set on Tuesday evening to take up the effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, led by outgoing Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who filed eight articles of impeachment. President Trump has repeatedly backed Hegseth in recent days and called the impeachment push a farce.
On the Senate side, Republicans will now move on from their own leadership votes to the same crowded calendar. Democrats will hold their own leadership elections the week after, as both parties organize for a new Congress in which the balance of power has flipped.
For Jordan, the next two years will be defined by a tension he has lived with for his entire career: he built his reputation as an outsider who challenged Republican leaders, and now he is the leader. Whether the combative approach that won him the job can win back the House in 2028 is the question that will follow him from his first day in the post.
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