When it was announced that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan would not be running for reelection as a representative of Wisconsin, it set off a minor scramble as a handful of other Republicans in the House began angling for his coveted role.
One member who has officially declared his candidacy for the position is Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, and Fox News host Sean Hannity just gave Jordan’s bid a huge boost with an endorsement on his national TV program on Fox on Friday night.
Take a look:
Jordan gears up for midterms
Hannity’s endorsement came as he hosted Jordan on the show to discuss a number of issues, most pertinently the upcoming midterm elections, the progress President Donald Trump has made thus far on his “MAGA” agenda, and the lamentable inability of Congress to keep their word to the American people who voted them into office.
Hannity first expressed his support for Jordan as speaker in May, but he reiterated on Friday his support for the prominent member of the House Freedom Caucus who has been a loyal supporter of the president and who fought doggedly to promote and enact a conservative agenda in Congress.
“Look, I will support you for Speaker,” Hannity said, “because I think the Freedom Caucus has been the most committed to fighting to keep their promises and literally the single biggest group fighting to defend the things that are conservative in the country and have helped the president the most.”
Jordan replied that it all boiled down to members of Congress keeping their word to the American people and actually doing what they said would do.
“Be willing to stand up and have the debate. All too often we forfeit before the debate even happens; before the referee even blows the whistle we say we’re gonna forfeit the match, we’re gonna forfeit the game,” Jordan said. “Let’s play the game, let’s wrestle the match, let’s make it happen, doing what we told [voters] we were going to do.”
Fierce competition
Earlier in the segment, Jordan listed off a number of what he viewed as undelivered promises to the American people, stating: “We haven’t delivered on health care reform, repealing Obamacare, we haven’t delivered on welfare reform, work requirements for able-bodied people, haven’t delivered on immigration policy or a border security wall and certainly haven’t delivered on holding and controlling spending.”
Jordan’s bid to be an actually-conservative speaker will undoubtedly face staunch opposition not only from Democrats and the liberal media, but also from the more moderate establishment Republicans who oppose his strong and principled stance on the issues.
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Most of the “experts” in the professional punditry class view Jordan’s effort to be Speaker as a long shot, and have instead ranked House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as the favorite to succeed Ryan, with the well-liked House Majority Whip Steve Scalise as the next most likely.
Regardless, the highly-rated Hannity has placed his considerable support behind Jordan’s quest to be Speaker — and that may just give Jordan enough of a boost to compete for the highly-sought-after leadership position.