Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio will lead House Republicans in the next Congress. Members of the shrunken GOP conference voted 106-73 for Jordan over Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana in a closed-door secret ballot on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

The contest came one week after a Democratic wave flipped the House and the Senate. Speaker Mike Johnson said the day after the election that he would leave the leadership team, which opened the top Republican job for the first time in three years.

A fighter for the minority

Jordan chairs the Judiciary Committee and once led the Oversight Committee. He sold himself to colleagues as the person best prepared to push back on the wave of investigations Democrats plan to open into the White House. In a letter to members he called himself battle tested on oversight and said he understands how the other side operates.

Speaking to reporters after the vote, Jordan said Republicans would answer Democratic proposals for more government with a message of more freedom. He promised to carry that fight into committee rooms, onto the House floor and out on the campaign trail.

Scalise had argued he could pull the party's factions together and look for chances to work with the new majority on Republican goals. Allies of Jordan countered that a party in the minority needs a sharper edge. Democrats will hold at least 254 seats once the last races are called.

Third time for Jordan

The win caps a long climb. Jordan, 62, helped found the House Freedom Caucus and served as its first chair. He clashed often with past Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan. He lost a bid for minority leader to Kevin McCarthy in 2018. In 2023 he and Scalise both fell short in the race to replace McCarthy as speaker before Johnson won the gavel.

A former college wrestler and two-time national champion, Jordan later coached wrestling at Ohio State. He has long denied claims from some former wrestlers that he knew about abuse by a team doctor during those years.

Scalise has served at the GOP leadership table for more than a decade. He survived being shot at a congressional baseball practice in 2017 and is in remission from a blood cancer.

The rest of the leadership slate

Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota held off August Pfluger of Texas to remain whip, now the number two post in the minority. Conference Chair Lisa McClain of Michigan kept her job after fending off two challengers.

Across the Capitol, Senate Republicans returned their whole team. John Thune of South Dakota will serve as minority leader with John Barrasso of Wyoming as whip and Tom Cotton of Arkansas as conference chair. A few conservatives had pushed to delay that vote so the party could first talk through what went wrong at the polls.