Gabe Fleisher

I help people understand their government. Author of Wake Up To Politics on Substack. @PostOpinions Contributor. Georgetown alum. St. Louis native.

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

NEW: Jim Jordan is, empirically, the most ideologically extreme congressional leader in modern history.

I calculated how far to the left or right every recent leader was on a widely used scale of legislator ideology.

Jordan zooms pas any of them: https://t.co/hPjwgiqIhU

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

@MattZeitlin Best I could do (though could make a case for Gingrich or Wherry’s contemporary Robert Taft, the other leader of the conservative wing at the time)

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

The only remotely comparable leader since WWII is Kenneth Wherry, who led the Senate GOP from 1949-1951, and was about as right of his caucus as Jordan is.

Here’s a bit about the gentleman from Nebraska, for context: https://t.co/hPjwgiqIhU

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

Spoken like someone who has been in many lonely minorities (and often taken advantage of the filibuster)

[Jonathan Allen @jonallendc]

The most interesting part of this press conference was Sanders’ thoughtful explanation of his view on getting rid of the filibuster: favorable toward majority rule and also concerned about protection of minority rights. It is *not* the way the base thinks about it.

[Matt Glassman @MattGlassman312]

Excellent data-driven piece on Jordan and ideologically-extreme leaders by @WakeUp2Politics.

https://t.co/4BuqDvuqXd

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

The only remotely comparable leader since WWII is Kenneth Wherry, who led the Senate GOP from 1949-1951, and was about as right of his caucus as Jordan is.

Here’s a bit about the gentleman from Nebraska, for context: https://t.co/hPjwgiqIhU

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

NEW: Jim Jordan is, empirically, the most ideologically extreme congressional leader in modern history.

I calculated how far to the left or right every recent leader was on a widely used scale of legislator ideology.

Jordan zooms pas any of them: https://t.co/hPjwgiqIhU

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

Is this just a function of Congress as a whole becoming more extreme?

No. If you redo the analysis and compare leaders to the caucuses they served alongside, Jordan *still* sticks out.

He is the most extreme modern congressional leader, even relative to his own caucus.

[Josh Kraushaar @JoshKraushaar]

Candidates matter:

Lauren Boebert switched districts in 2024 to run in a much redder seat next door. She lost in 2026.

Jeff Hurd ran in her place, Trump tried to primary him because he opposed the Canadian tariffs, and he's one of only 2 House Rs left in Trump < +10 district.

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

If Schumer/Jeffries/Thune hold on -- in the 20 years between Jan 2007 and Jan 2027, Senate Democrats, House Democrats, and Senate Republicans will have had two top leaders each.

House Republicans will have had five.

[Steve Morris @stevemorris__]

Jordan is the *fifth* person to lead the House Republican conference since Trump first rode down the escalator in 2015

[Matt Grossmann @mattgrossmann]

Electing Jim Jordan moves the Republican caucus leadership rightward. Scalise would have been similar to Johnson.

[Jake Sherman @JakeSherman]

JORDAN: 106
SCALISE: 73

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

The “I was way too conservative considering the partisan lean of my district” caucus (Boebert an honorary member from before she moved districts)

[Acyn @Acyn]

A CNN graphic with a list of some of the GOP incumbents who were ousted

[Gavin Bena 🗳 @gavinbena]

> Texas to the left of Minnesota
> North Carolina to the left of Oregon
> Louisiana to the left of Florida
> South Carolina to the left of Iowa
> Georgia to the left of New Hampshire

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

https://t.co/eYPv6o0TLF

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

Trump’s Jan 2021 letter to Biden, reprinted in his book and obtained by NYT

Times says it was written in Trump’s Sharpie, though it’s very hard to imagine him writing this (especially after @Douthat60’s exploration of Trump’s inner life this weekend)

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

@derektmuller Fair, should have said since re-election!

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

I wonder if any Supreme Court justice has ever ruled against any president as frequently as Ketanji Brown Jackson

KBJ was the only justice to publicly dissent from an order today allowing border wall construction to continue. She has sided against him 51/54 times in my tracker.

[Will Jordan @williamjordann]

99% of House districts moved against president's party this year -- biggest in modern history & clearly a step change, but part of a long term trend towards "universal swing" in House districts (2022 was a non-wave, but similar to 2010 at 84%).

Median district +14D, also a high

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

You can paint a similar story about post-2014 Obama.

Some of Obama’s most progressive policies came via exec actions after 2014 midterms: EOs on guns, immigration, climate, and more.

All used against him by Trump two years later https://t.co/kYJ2JS9Zk0

[Gabe Fleisher @GabeFleisher]

Seeing some misinterpretations of Bush’s ’06 Rumsfeld firing.

It wasn’t a pivot: it was him doubling down on Iraq, with the troop surge that Rumsfeld opposed.

Most second-term presidents stay the course after midterm losses. Their parties pay the price. https://t.co/kYJ2JS9Zk0