WASHINGTON — Rep. Jim Jordan said that he would run to succeed retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan, ratcheting up a contest that House Republican leaders had hoped to largely defer until this fall.
Jordan, of Ohio, announced his plans in a letter sent to House Republicans on Thursday and is the first Republican to formally challenge House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., whom Ryan has endorsed to succeed him.
Jordan’s official entrance into the leadership race Thursday marked a defiant assertion of political normalcy for the Ohio Republican, who has been enmeshed in the most tumultuous stretch of his nearly 12-year congressional career.
Former wrestlers at Ohio State University this month said Jordan was aware of, but didn’t respond to, allegations of sexual misconduct by a team doctor when Jordan was the wrestling team’s assistant coach in the 1990s. Jordan has said he wasn’t aware of any abuse at the time.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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