Jim Jordan running to replace Ryan as House Speaker

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, will announce Thursday that he is will run to replace Paul Ryan as House Speaker.

Jordan confirmed to reporters he is running for Speaker and that he will be circulating a note to his colleagues announcing his run.

“Yes,” Jordan said when asked to confirm reports that he is running for the post. “We are sending a letter to all of our colleagues.”

“Should the American people entrust us with the majority again in the 116th Congress, I plan to run for Speaker of the House to bring real change to the House of Representatives,” he said in a formal statement. “President Trump has taken bold action on behalf of the American people. Congress has not held up its end of the deal, but we can change that. It’s time to do what we said.”

Jordan said in his letter to Republicans that he’s running to push Congress harder to deliver more conservative reforms. He said he would ensure the House doesn’t cave in to Democratic demands for more spending, and implicitly criticized a deal that Ryan helped secure for more spending.

“When Senator Schumer shut down the government because he wanted amnesty for illegal immigrants and then reopened it days later, we were poised to win the omnibus spending debate,” he wrote. “By holding firm, we could have broken the patter of giving the Left a dollar to fund big government for every dollar spent funding the troops.”

“We didn’t even have that debate, though,” he wrote. “We simply forfeited and did what the swamp always does: We gave more money to everything.”

Jordan had been floating a possible Speaker bid since Ryan, R-Wis., announced he was not running for re-election.

[Opinion: Rep. Jim Jordan should run for speaker of the House — before it’s too late]

Jordan is thought to be a long-shot candidate given his lack of popularity in the GOP conference. Candidates to replace Ryan will need to win the votes of nearly all House Republicans to ensure a majority of the House, since most Democrats are expected to vote for Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

On Wednesday, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., signaled his intention to run for the speakership, assuming Republicans hold onto the majority after the November elections. However, the chances of retaining the House are slipping away. The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics predicted Tuesday that Democrats are now favored.

Jordan’s announcement comes after a tumultuous month in which he was accused of turning a blind eye to allegations of sexual abuse at Ohio State University during his tenure as assistant wrestling coach. Upwards of eight wrestlers accused him of knowing about the abuse.

However, a number of former wrestlers and coaches, including the head coach at the time, backed him in the face of the allegations.

Jordan said that he doesn’t believe the allegations will hurt him in his bid to replace Ryan.

“I’ve talked to all kinds of colleagues,” Jordan said. “They can all see through that story.”

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