Jim Jordan heartily endorses McCarthy for House Speaker if GOP wins

Rep. Jim Jordan, one of the most influential voices in House Republicans' conservative wing, is heartily endorsing Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker if the GOP wins control of the chamber as expected.

"It seems to me that the guy who gets your team to the Super Bowl gets to coach the game," Jordan told the Just the News, No Noise television show on Wednesday.

Jordan, an Ohio Republican and the likely chairman of the House Judiciary Committee if a GOP-led Congress, praised McCarthy for his stewardship of the election and his ability to hold Republicans together during key votes in the Democrat-led Congress, such as opposing President Donald Trump's first impeachment.

"Kevin did a great job. ...Back in 2019 when they (Democrats) did their crazy impeachment of President Trump, the conventional wisdom was that all the Democrats are going to vote to impeach President Trump in the House and a bunch of Republicans were going to join in," he said.

"But the leader did a good job of holding that team together. And after we went through that hard fought debate and fight for several months, in the end, every Republican voted not to impeach and a bunch of Democrats joined us and one Democrat, switched parties and is now a strong member of our of our conference. So I think all that factors into where we're headed."

His comments come amid a report that the conservative Freedom Caucus, which Jordan is a key member, will make demands of McCarthy before throwing support behind him and might even run a challenger.

Jordan said while he was disappointed Republicans didn't pick up more wins in Tuesday's election he was satisfied Republicans will control the House comfortably and win the Senate by at least one with a runoff in Georgia in December.

"You know, sometimes you have to go in overtime in the championship game to get to the Super Bowl. But I think that makes sense. And that's, that's, I think, where we're headed," he said.