After two weeks of chaos and infighting with no speaker of the House, House Republicans heeded Donald Trump’s call and chose MAGA firebrand and partisan extremist Jim Jordan as their next speaker. Jordan is on the record fighting for the most extreme, unpopular parts of the MAGA agenda, from banning abortion nationwide, to leading efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, to pushing for costly government shutdowns. The choice of Jordan as their next speaker shows that House Republicans are intent on ignoring the issues Americans care about to focus on an extreme right-wing agenda that voters have rejected at the ballot box time and time again.
As Rep. Jim Jordan prepares to hold the gavel, he’s set to become the Republican Chaos Conference’s most extreme speaker yet – and Republicans nationwide will be forced to answer for his unpopular track record in 2024. Here are some important facts you need to know about Jordan’s record.
1. Jordan has led the fight for a nationwide abortion ban.
- Jordan is an anti-abortion extremist who has led the fight for a nationwide abortion ban and pushed for misleading, anti-abortion legislation as soon as there was a MAGA House majority.
- Jordan even refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the tragic story of a 10-year-old rape victim who was refused reproductive health care in Jordan’s home state after the Dobbs decision.
2. Jordan is Trump’s chief election denier in Congress.
-
In the fight to overturn the 2020 election results, Jordan was Trump’s man on the inside – using his power in Congress to spread baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election which led insurrectionists to Washington, D.C., to carry out an attack on the U.S. Capitol.
- The final report of the January 6th Select Committee: “Representative Jordan was a significant player in President Trump’s efforts. He participated in numerous post-election meetings in which senior White House officials, Rudolph Giuliani, and others, discussed strategies for challenging the election, chief among them claims that the election had been tainted by fraud. On January 2, 2021, Representative Jordan led a conference call in which he, President Trump, and other Members of Congress discussed strategies for delaying the January 6th joint session.”
- Jordan was the first to put his name on the petition to object to the counting of Nevada’s electoral votes in 2020 – literally signing his name onto efforts to undermine democracy and spread the Big Lie.
3. Jordan supports the most extreme, unpopular parts of the MAGA agenda – including slashing Social Security and Medicare – that are electoral liabilities for Republicans heading into 2024.
- Jim Jordan voted for Paul Ryan’s plan to end Social Security and Medicare as we know them and has repeatedly proposed slashing these essential programs.
4. Jordan has led government shutdowns, pushed extreme spending cuts that hurt working families, and is ranked among the least effective members of Congress – spending his time on a partisan, baseless impeachment sham instead of working to pass actual legislation.
- Jordan has pushed unpopular spending cuts that hurt working families and has been a “key leader” of the GOP’s repeated efforts to push the government toward shutdowns while holding out for concessions.
- A study conducted by the Center For Effective Lawmaking ranked Jordan as one of the least effective lawmakers in the 116th Congress – the 202nd most effective Republican out of the 205 it studied based on bills sponsored, bill movement, and the significance of legislation.
- Instead of working to pass legislation on the issues Americans care about, Jordan answered Trump’s call to help lead a baseless impeachment inquiry on President Biden.
- Don’t take our word for it: former Republican House Speaker John Boehner described Jordan as a “legislative terrorist” because of his record of holding the legislative process hostage to push his extreme agenda.
The Takeaway: Jordan’s track record of fighting for a nationwide abortion ban, doing Donald Trump’s bidding to undermine free and fair elections, and pushing cuts for Social Security and Medicare is a massive electoral liability for Republicans, who will be forced to answer for his extremism in 2024.
-
Election deniers underperformed nationwide in 2022 and fared especially poorly in competitive races. In choosing Jordan to be the new face of Republican leadership, the GOP is doubling down on the same failed playbook that cost them in 2022.
- Democrats won 37 of the 47 most competitive races where their Republican opponents were 2020 election deniers, a nearly-80% win rate for Democrats in what were essentially toss-up races.
- Democrats are winning, even in red states, on the issue of abortion. Jordan’s extreme, unpopular record of working to strip away women’s rights to make their own health care decisions is one Republicans across the country will be forced to defend.
- Jordan is on the record pushing extremely unpopular cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
In sum, Jim Jordan is extreme, out of touch, and focused on doing Trump’s bidding instead of delivering for the American people. His election to become speaker of the House — and, accordingly, the face of Republicans in Congress — will drag the GOP down nationwide in 2024.
In 2023, there are elections in Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia & Wisconsin. Americans overseas request your absentee ballot today at votefromabroad.org. Every vote counts.