Today, Congressional Republicans voted to elect Jim Jordan as House Minority Leader and John Thune as Senate Minority Leader. Even after voters rebuked Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Republicans’ agenda in the midterm elections, Republicans are set on maintaining the status quo that raised costs on working families, left Trump and Vance’s war with Iran unchecked, and delivered the largest cut to healthcare and food assistance in history in order to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-rich.
Jordan will take over the House GOP leadership position, following Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s decision to not seek reelection for leadership after Republicans were humiliated in last week’s elections.
In response, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement:
“One week ago, voters sent Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Republicans a clear message that they are fed up with the Trump-Vance agenda that made life unaffordable — but it’s clear spineless congressional Republicans still aren’t listening to their own constituents. Apparently Trump, Vance, and Republicans learned nothing from last week’s election, and instead elevated Republicans in Congress who will continue to do Trump’s bidding and rubber-stamp his agenda that has raised costs for working families. Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress are prepared to use their new majorities to lower costs and end the Republican chaos and corruption.”
Jordan and Thune have been in lockstep with Trump and Vance. Jordan has been one of the strongest defenders of Trump’s war with Iran and dismissed Americans’ concerns about high gas prices, saying “That’s life” and that Americans “can live with” high prices. Jordan frequently praised the Big Ugly Bill, claiming it has made life less expensive and insisting that Trump has followed through on his promises to lower prices. Meanwhile, Jordan has criticized calls to release the Epstein files and even said he believed Ghislaine Maxwell’s testimony that “Trump didn’t do anything wrong” — despite Trump being referenced 38,000 times in the files.
When Thune became majority leader, he promised to carry out a mandate for Trump’s agenda. Thune has also been an ardent defender of Trump’s policies, and was instrumental in passing Republicans’ Big Ugly Bill, which made the largest cuts to healthcare and food assistance in history. Thune claimed that “rural hospitals are going to be fine,” despite Republicans’ $1 trillion cut to Medicaid, and suggested using the debt ceiling to force cuts to Social Security and other entitlement programs, in addition to raising the retirement age.
