Jim Jordan's rapid rise has been cheered by Trump and the far right. Could it soon make him speaker?

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, talks with reporters as House Republicans meet again behind closed doors to find a path to elect a new speaker after House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., dropped out of the race Thursday night, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

Rep. Jim Jordan has such a reputation as a political brawler that former House Speaker John Boehner once said he’d never met someone “who spent more time tearing things apart.”

Now, nearly a decade after Boehner stepped down in the face of a conservative revolt, it is Jordan who is trying to bring the Republican Party together to win the speaker’s gavel.

A favorite of former President Donald Trump and darling of the party’s rabble-rousing base, Jordan’s path to the U.S. government’s third-highest office is by no means certain in a House Republican conference riven by conflict following the ouster two weeks ago of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. To win, Jordan will need support from nearly every House Republican, having few votes to spare in a chamber they only narrowly control.