Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio announced today that he will run for Speaker of the House to replace outgoing pro-life Speaker Paul Ryan next January. Jordan is a pro-life advocate and a strong voice against the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
House Speaker Paul Ryan announced in April that he will not seek re-election.
“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,” Jordan told this news organization today. “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.”
According to The Hill, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday he would not support Jordan as his replacement and is backing House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California.
In March, more than 100 Tea Party leaders sent an open letter to Rep. Jim Jordan urging him to immediately declare himself a candidate for speaker.
“You must take the lead,” read the letter, signed by Tea Party and ultra-conservative leaders including Ed Meese, who was attorney general for President Ronald Reagan, Jenny Beth Martin, the chairman of the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund and Eunie Smith, president of the Eagle Forum, among others.
Jordan was joined by U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-North Carolina, who heads the House Freedom Caucus. Both are leaders of the conservative group.
Jordan has been a passionate advocate for unborn babies, as well as efforts to defund the abortion giant Planned Parenthood, which performs about 320,000 abortions and reaps in about $500 million tax dollars annually. The House had previously approved a bill to defund Planned Parenthood but the Senate was not able to muster enough votes to approve it as all Democrats opposed it along with a handful of Republicans. Thus, there was no ability to defund Planned Parenthood in the omnibus.
Back in 2015, Jordan also was one of the lawmakers who questioned Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards about selling aborted baby parts. The U.S. Congressional hearing was held soon after the Center for Medical Progress released its first several videos exposing the abortion chain’s baby body parts trade.
“If the videos were selectively edited, if this was entrapment, all untrue, then why did you apologize?” Jordan asked, referring to Richards’ statements after the first video was released.
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Richards refused to give a direct answer.
In regard to the speakership, the number two and number three Republicans in the House also are pro-life and could run for the position: Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, and North Carolina’s Mark Meadows, a leading voice of the conservative Freedom Caucus. All three have consistent pro-life voting records.
Though Ryan received criticism from some pro-lifers during his tenure, he actually did make pro-life legislation a priority in the U.S. House. However, the legislation died in the U.S. Senate because there were not enough votes.
Under Ryan’s leadership, the U.S. House passed many pro-life bills, including several to defund the nation’s largest abortion provider, a ban on late-term abortions after 20 weeks and more. However, the Senate fell a few vote short of passing the legislation defunding Planned Parenthood.
