Last week’s midterm elections were not a subtle warning for Republicans. Even members of the party described the result as a “Watergate-level repudiation” and “close to an extinction-level event for the Republican Party.”

The GOP’s losses, including defeats in red states, amounted to a referendum on President Donald Trump and the party’s failure to deliver key policy victories for Americans. Rather than reconsider its direction, the House Republican conference chose Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan as its new leader.

Jordan is a MAGA loyalist whose record centers on protecting the lame duck president and attacking opponents, not working with Democrats to reduce costs or end the deeply unpopular Iran war. That is quite a response after voters punished Republicans for offering spectacle instead of results.

Jordan’s own explanation of his purpose in Washington is revealing. He has said, “I didn’t come to Congress to make more laws.”

His legislative record certainly reflects that declaration. In almost 20 years in Congress, none of the bills Jordan authored have become law.

The closest Jordan came to legislative substance was leading the House effort behind the 2013 government shutdown in an unsuccessful attempt to undermine the Affordable Care Act. Former House Speaker John Boehner later told Politico, “Jordan was a terrorist as a legislator going back to his days in the Ohio House and Senate. A terrorist. A legislative terrorist.”

Boehner offered a similarly brutal assessment to CBS News’ John Dickerson in 2021. “I just never saw a guy who spent more time tearing things apart, never building anything, never putting anything together,” he said.

The Center for Effective Lawmaking, a project of Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia, ranked Jordan as the least effective Republican in the Congress spanning 2023 and 2024. He has also consistently placed among the bottom five Republicans in its rankings.

That record is especially jarring beside what voters say they want from Congress. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 71% of Americans want Congress to pass legislation ending the Iran war, while 62% want lawmakers to work on repealing Trump’s tariffs.

Jordan, however, has built his career around Fox News appearances and circus style performances at congressional hearings. He has made at least 716 weekday appearances on Fox News since 2017.

As House Judiciary chairman, Jordan also led the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. He promised to demonstrate that the government had been weaponized against conservatives, but the effort fell far short of that pledge.

Jordan claimed to have spoken with dozens and dozens of whistleblowers. He ultimately produced three, and none offered firsthand knowledge supporting his allegations.

The same pattern defined Jordan’s time on the Benghazi select committee, where he shouted at Hillary Clinton about a video during one of several redundant investigations. Those investigations ended without charges against Clinton.

At a 2021 Covid-19 hearing, Jordan demanded that Anthony Fauci identify the exact case number at which Americans could “get their freedom back.” Jordan rejected every answer and continued until Fauci told him, “You’re ranting again.”

The exchange generated attention on social media, but the oversight itself produced nothing of value. It was another familiar Jordan production, heavy on outrage and painfully light on results.

Republicans are now elevating that approach despite unmistakable feedback from voters who want legislators to improve their lives. Faced with a political clobbering, the party selected a leader defined by bluster over substance.

The irony will become even sharper in January, when congressional Republicans lose their oversight power as the new Democratic majority takes office. Jordan will no longer possess the gavel that enabled many of his most theatrical performances.

What remains will be the ordinary work of legislating, including counting votes, negotiating deals and passing laws. Those are precisely the responsibilities Jordan has openly said did not bring him to Congress.

House Republicans could have treated the election as an instruction to change course. Instead, they chose a leader who represents more of the same failed performance, just as the stage he relied upon is being taken away.