How a 'legislative terrorist' conquered the Republican Party

On the startling ascendance of Jim Jordan

Jim Jordan.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images, Aerial3/iStock)

In the wake of every House Republican voting against impeaching Donald Trump, it's reasonable to see the GOP as the president's party, remade in his image. But to truly understand the transformation of the Republican Party during the Trump years, we actually should focus on someone else: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Jordan's journey from gadfly loathed by party leadership to ranking committee member, presidential confidant, and party leader exemplifies how the GOP has changed in the Trump Era — and how Trumpism won't be easily undone after the 45th president leaves office.

The ideological transformation of the Republican Party has been ongoing for more than a half century. What was once the party of moderates like Dwight Eisenhower and liberals like Nelson Rockefeller, dominated by figures from the two coasts and stalwarts in the Midwest, slowly became a staunchly conservative party centered in the South.

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Brian Rosenwald

Brian Rosenwald is a Resident Senior Fellow at the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program at the University of Pennsylvania, co-editor of Made by History at the Washington Post, and author of Talk Radio's America, forthcoming from Harvard University Press in 2019.