Background and career
James Daniel Jordan (born February 17, 1964) is an American politician who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives as the representative for Ohio's 4th congressional district since 2007. Currently in his 10th term in the House, Jordan is a member of the Republican Party. Jordan is a two-time NCAA national champion wrestler and a former college wrestling coach. In Congress, Jordan helped start the right-wing populist House Freedom Caucus, serving as its first chair from 2015 to 2017, and as its vice chair since 2017. Jordan was a prominent critic of Speaker of the House John Boehner, who resigned under Freedom Caucus pressure in 2015. He was the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee from 2019 to 2020, when he left to become the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, of which he became chair in 2023. Described by media sources as a far-right politician, Jordan is a close ally of President Donald Trump. During Trump's first presidency, Jordan sought to discredit investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and staged a sit-in to prevent a Trump impeachment inquiry hearing over the Trump–Zelenskyy telephone controversy. After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and Trump tried to overturn the election, Jordan supported lawsuits to challenge the election results and voted not to certify the Electoral College results. He refused to cooperate with the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, which subpoenaed him on May 12, 2022. Jordan, who opposed Kevin McCarthy during his failed bid to succeed Boehner as speaker in 2015, later became one of McCarthy's closest allies; Jordan supported McCarthy during the January 2023 Speaker of the House election. After McCarthy was removed as speaker, Jordan stood in the October 2023 election to replace him. He became the second nominee of the House Republican Conference after Steve Scalise withdrew, but failed to win the speakership in three rounds of voting and withdrew his nomination.
Jordan was born in Troy, Ohio, the son of Shirley and John Jordan, and raised in Champaign County, Ohio. He attended and wrestled for Graham High School, graduating in 1982. He won state championships all four years he was in high school and compiled a 156–1 win–loss record. After high school, Jordan went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he became a two-time NCAA Division I wrestling champion. Jordan won the 1985 and 1986 NCAA championship matches in the 134-pound (61 kg) weight class, defeating future multi time World and Olympic champion John Smith in the former. He lost the 126–137-pound (57–62 kg) featherweight semifinal match at the 1988 US Olympic wrestling trials against Smith, failing to qualify for the Olympic team in freestyle wrestling. Jordan graduated from Wisconsin in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in economics. Jordan later earned a master's degree in education from Ohio State University and received a Juris Doctor degree from the Capital University Law School in 2001. In a 2018 interview, Jordan said he never took the bar examination.
Jordan was an assistant coach with Ohio State University's wrestling program from 1987 to 1995. Richard Strauss was the wrestling team physician during Jordan's tenure. Strauss died by suicide in 2005. In April 2018, Ohio State University began an independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by Strauss. The report concluded that Strauss had committed sexual abuse against 177 student-patients. The majority of abuse (143 victims) was categorized as genital fondling associated with medically unnecessary genital or rectal examinations. Of the 177, 153 were student-athletes, of which a plurality (48) were members of the men's wrestling team. Several involved persons have stated that Jordan surely knew of Strauss's criminal misconduct but did not report it. While at least one victim has named Jordan as knowledgeable of accusations against Strauss, Head Coach Russ Hellickson said he may not have known about the abuse. A spokesperson for Jordan denied the allegation, saying that Jordan "never saw or heard of any abuse, and if he had, he would have dealt with it". No wrestlers have accused Jordan himself of sexual misconduct, but four former wrestlers named him as a defendant in a lawsuit against the university. Jordan has denied any wrongdoing and has described his accusers as "pawns in a political plot".
Jordan was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1994 and represented the 85th Ohio House district for three terms. In 2000, Jordan was elected to the Ohio Senate over independent candidate Jack Kaffenberger with 88% of the vote. In 2004, Jordan defeated Kaffenberger again, with 79% of the vote.
Jordan represents Ohio's 4th congressional district, a primarily urban district, which includes Lima, Mansfield, Marysville, and Marion, and parts of Columbus. Jordan first ran for Congress in 2006, where he won the Republican primary for the 4th district after 26-year incumbent Mike Oxley announced his retirement. Jordan defeated Democratic nominee Rick Siferd in the general election with 60% of the vote. Jordan was reelected in 2008, defeating Democratic nominee Mike Carroll with 65% of the vote. In 2010, he was again reelected, defeating Democrat Doug Litt and Libertarian Donald Kissick with 71% of the vote. Jordan was reelected in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024.
Jordan chaired the Republican Study Committee during the 112th Congress, while turning down a position on the Appropriations Committee. During the 2013 US government shutdown, he was described by Rolling Stone as the committee's most powerful member. That group was the primary proponent and executor of the Republican congressional strategy to bring about a government shutdown in order to force changes in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Jordan received a vote for Speaker of the United States House of Representatives in the 113th Congress from a fellow right-wing conservative, Tea Party Caucus chairman Tim Huelskamp. Jordan received two votes for Speaker during the 114th Congress. On July 26, 2018, he announced his bid for Speaker after Paul Ryan retired; his campaign ended when Democrats took the majority in the House. Subsequently, Jordan campaigned for House minority leader. Former Ohio state representative Capri Cafaro said that Jordan "is someone who has built a reputation as an attack dog, someone who is media savvy, someone who is a stalwart supporter of the president and who has the skill necessary to take the lead for the GOP". He lost his bid to Kevin McCarthy in a 159–43 vote. In 2023, Jordan returned to consideration for the speakership after McCarthy failed to win it after three rounds of voting. And in October of the same year, he briefly held the GOP nomination for speaker. Jordan was the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee from January 2019 to June 2020, with a brief interlude in March 2020. He was replaced by James Comer. Jordan's district has been redrawn over time to minimize urban area (such as Toledo, Columbus or Cleveland) and increase rural area; it now stretches from Lake Erie nearly to Dayton. In May 2019, a three-judge federal panel ruled Ohio's congressional district map unconstitutional due to partisan gerrymandering and ordered Ohio to create a new map in time for the 2020 election. But after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rucho v. Common Cause that courts could not review allegations of gerrymandering, the district boundaries were not to change until maps were redrawn in 2022. In December 2021, the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack released the partial contents of a text message an unnamed lawmaker sent to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows before the scheduled final certification of presidential electors on January 6, 2021. The excerpt read: "On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all." The day after the release, Jordan acknowledged sending the message, but said he had merely forwarded it after receiving it from attorney Joseph Schmitz. Both Jordan and Meadows asserted that the committee had altered the context of the excerpt by misplacing a period.
