Biography

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. He 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. He is the dean of Ohio's GOP delegation to the House of Representatives, since January 2023 after the loss of fellow Republican Steve Chabot. 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 had his nomination revoked.