Jim Jordan Wins the House Republican Leadership 106-73, Three Years After His Speaker Bid Failed

House Republicans on Tuesday 10 November 2026 elected Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to lead them in the minority in the next Congress, choosing him over Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana by 106 votes to 73, CBS News reported, citing sources familiar with the tally.

The conference voted by secret ballot and the party has not published a count, so the figure rests on that one report. Speaker Mike Johnson, who announced on 4 November that he would not seek the post after Republicans lost the House, The National News Desk reported, did not say whom he backed. He called the two candidates “both my brothers” and added: “It is easier to keep a group together when you’re in the minority.” He remains Speaker until the new House meets, and said on Tuesday that he would “take the oath in January.”

The rest of the ballot

Tom Emmer of Minnesota kept the whip’s job, defeating August Pfluger of Texas; CBS did not report a tally. Lisa McClain faced Erin Houchin and Greg Steube for conference chair. In the Senate, where Republicans will also be in the minority, John Thune of South Dakota was re-elected leader by acclamation after the conference voted to proceed despite a push by Ron Johnson of Wisconsin to delay the elections, and John Barrasso, Tom Cotton and Shelley Moore Capito kept the posts of whip, conference chair and policy chair. “Over the next two years, House Republicans will fight for American families,” Mr Jordan said after the vote.

About three hours later the House sent Thomas Massie’s articles of impeachment against Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to Mr Jordan’s committee, by 211 votes to 204. He keeps the chairmanship until the Congress ends.

How has the conference voted on Jordan before?

Against him more often than for him. Tuesday was the first time he has won the conference’s top job and kept it. The table is this publication’s compilation of the secret ballots in which he was a candidate, from contemporaneous reports; the shares are our arithmetic on the reported tallies, and they exclude members who voted present.

The sources are Fox News for 2018, Roll Call for the votes of 11 and 13 October 2023, NBC News for 20 October and CBS for Tuesday. The 2018 race is the closest parallel: a majority lost at the midterms and a minority leader chosen the following week. Mr Jordan’s share has nearly tripled since then. His margin over Mr Scalise, 33 votes, is more than twice Mr Scalise’s 14-vote margin over him three years ago.

Why a conference majority was not enough in 2023

Because the speakership is decided on the floor, by the whole House. In October 2023 Mr Jordan won the nomination in the conference and then lost three floor ballots; on the last, NBC reported, he received 194 votes, “21 short of the number he needed to be elected speaker on the House floor based on attendance,” and a secret ballot of the conference then dropped him by 112 to 86. The poll that showed 152 Republicans ready to support him on the floor was taken by secret ballot; the floor votes that followed were public.

Minority leader carries no such second test. No floor vote confirms it; the 106 votes of Tuesday are the whole of the mandate. The turnout was also smaller than in either earlier contest: the two candidates drew 179 votes between them, against 202 in 2018 and 212 on 11 October 2023. The size of the next Republican conference is not settled, because House races remain uncalled, and CBS did not report which members and members-elect were eligible to vote, so this publication has not computed a share of the full conference.

The next floor test comes on 3 January 2027, when the new House meets and elects a Speaker. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, is on track to win it, NBC News reported. Republicans will put up a candidate of their own in that roll call, which is taken in public, by name. It is the one kind of vote for the job that Mr Jordan has never won.