House Republicans on Tuesday chose Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio to lead them in the next Congress, voting 106 to 73 over Majority Leader Steve Scalise. Senate Republicans, after more than seven hours behind closed doors, recrowned John Thune. Yesterday I told you a revolt was brewing. It lost in the Senate, and it only half-won in the House. The rank and file have a right to be disgusted.
Thune is recrowned anyway
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin led a motion to delay the leadership elections so someone could actually challenge the current team. It failed 31 to 15, Fox News reported. No one ran against Thune. “What I didn’t agree with was holding the election right away, giving nobody an opportunity to really challenge any leadership position,” Johnson said.
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who joined the delay push, said, “I think we have to acknowledge the voters are not happy. We have to start listening to voters.” Among the commitments he wanted was another try at the SAVE America Act.
That should have been the warning. The House already passed the SAVE Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. President Trump made it a top priority. Under Thune, it stalled in the Senate. In June, Thune told Fox News’s Bret Baier the only way to finish the job was to “nuke the legislative filibuster,” and that was “not something that we have anywhere close to the votes to do.” “The votes currently aren’t there,” he said. “We are bound by arithmetic.”
Democrats deserve blame for blocking a measure most Americans support. But a majority leader is chosen to find a path, not to shrug and call it math. Thune would not change the rules. The bill never became law. And on Tuesday, Senate Republicans put him back in charge.
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri called for “a pretty tough family conversation” about the party’s record on costs. That conversation was postponed. The family recrowned the same man who held up the SAVE Act.
Jordan is better. He is not the whole answer.
Jordan won a closed-door secret ballot, according to Fox News Digital. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin said Jordan “understands what we’re up against,” adding, “His ability to communicate is really kind of unrivaled by anybody else in the House right now.” As Judiciary chairman, Jordan has been one of President Trump’s most dependable defenders, and he will lead the response as Democrats prepare investigations of the President’s Cabinet, family and businesses.
That is a better choice than Scalise. Jordan knows how to make the conservative case in public, and in the minority that matters. But he is not 100 percent. He is a stronger fighter than Thune, and that is not a clean break. Rank-and-file conservatives who wanted a real reckoning should not pretend this is one.
The bottom line
Recrowning Thune after he held up the SAVE Act, and settling for a House leader who is only an improvement, will not help get out the vote in two years. The base is not inspired by the same Senate leadership and a partial change in the House. In 2028, it will take a great presidential ticket to bring people back to the polls. These men are part of the problem the voters just tried to flag, and the party just told those voters to wait.
I am glad Jordan beat Scalise. I am not glad Senate Republicans decided the man who would not pass the SAVE Act should keep the gavel.