Conservatives cheered the day John Boehner announced he was resigning as speaker in 2015.
They stopped cheering when Paul Ryan replaced him and ran out the same playbook.
Now Jim Jordan is sitting at a Georgia Waffle House one step from finishing what they started.
The House Freedom Caucus Forced Boehner Out and Jordan Has Not Stopped Building Since
Jim Jordan co-founded the House Freedom Caucus in 2015 to give conservatives real leverage over their own leadership, fought through the Ryan years, then he went to the House floor three times in 2023 chasing the speaker's gavel and never reached 218. .
At a Waffle House in Dalton, Georgia on Monday, Jordan delivered his official position on running for minority leader if Republicans lose the House in November.
"We're focused on winning," he said over coffee. "We got 32 days. We're focused on winning."
Punchbowl News confirmed what Jordan's inner circle is too careful to say in public: his closest aides and allies are actively plotting a leadership run if Republicans lose the majority.
Jordan has discussed it with people close to him – just not over coffee in Dalton.
Jordan's $4.8 Million Paper Trail Across 33 States in the 2026 Midterm Cycle
Jordan hit 33 states this cycle.
He gave $1.55 million to the NRCC, $550,000 to redistricting fights in Virginia and California, and $1.6 million in direct checks to 186 individual candidates.
A super PAC run by his former chief of staff added another $1.1 million in independent expenditures.
He was early to back Rep. Matt Van Epps in Tennessee, who won Mark Green's seat.
He backed Mark Teixeira – the former Yankees World Series first baseman – who is on track to win a Texas House seat in November.
Those are not the moves of a man who wants to keep running the Judiciary Committee.
Those are political IOUs, and Jordan has been writing them across the country for three years.
A minority leader race only needs a simple majority of House Republicans in a secret ballot – not 218 floor votes from the full chamber.
Jordan has been doing the math this whole time.
Minority Leader in 2027 Means House Speaker in 2029
If Republicans lose the House in November, Jordan becomes minority leader. If Republicans win it back in 2028 Jordan becomes speaker.
Conservatives spent twenty years fighting their own party's leadership for a speaker who actually believed what they believed.
Boehner cried at press conferences and cut deals with Democrats.
Ryan wrote budgets that ballooned the deficit and slow-walked the wall for four years.
Jordan fought both of them directly. He built the pressure that forced Boehner out, then turned the Freedom Caucus into the institution that gave conservatives real leverage inside their own party for the first time. In 2023, he came up short again.
But the path he is walking right now – build the IOUs, take the minority leader job, wait for 2028 – is the most viable route to the speakership any real conservative has ever had.
At the closed-door fundraiser in Dalton, Jordan told the room what is coming if Democrats take the House: impeach Trump a third time, go after the first family, go after every Cabinet secretary, and begin dismantling every potential 2028 Republican nominee – JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Glenn Youngkin, whoever emerges first.
"They are going to go after everyone in the first family," Jordan told the crowd. "They're going to go after every Cabinet secretary. They're going to go after people in the private sector."
Nobody preparing to sit quietly in the minority gives that speech.
Jordan has watched Democrats run this play before and spent three years making sure he is standing at the front when they run it again.
Jordan's Judiciary commitee staff has been inside nearly every major congressional investigation of the last decade – both Trump impeachments, the Hunter Biden probe, and more.
Trump has already described Jordan as "a championship wrestler who's always ready to brawl."
Conservatives fought for twenty years to get a speaker who fights like that.
One Waffle House denial at a time, Jordan is making sure the wait is almost over.
Sources:
- Jake Sherman, "Jim Jordan Seems Very Likely to Run for GOP Leader," Punchbowl News, October 5, 2026.
- Jake Sherman, "Jim Jordan Flagged as GOP's Great Hope If Party Flames Out in Midterms," Punchbowl News, March 20, 2026.
- Staff, "Former MLB Star Mark Teixeira Announces Run for Texas Congressional Seat," Fox News, August 28, 2025.