Here’s how Jim Jordan is selling himself as Speaker to his GOP colleagues

WASHINGTON, D. C. – After floating a bid to succeed California’s Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker soon after McCarthy announced he won’t seek the job again on Tuesday, Ohio’s Jim Jordan made his candidacy official on Wednesday.

Here’s text of the letter the Champaign County Republican is sending his GOP colleagues to win their support for the top job in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Read more: Coverage of Jim Jordan’s effort to become speaker

Dear Colleague:

The American people have entrusted us to lead in the House of Representatives. Our majority has had success in the first nine months of the 118th Congress. We should be proud of what we have achieved together in these divided times.

But our work is not done. Far-left progressive policies are destroying our communities, our security, and our future. We have soaring crime across the country. We have an administration with open-border policies that have caused chaos and left our country vulnerable. We’ve seen federal agencies turned on the American people—silencing speech online, targeting parents at school board meetings, and flagging pro-life Catholics as potential threats —and we’ve witnessed blatant double standards in federal law enforcement. We continue to spend too much money and Americans are suffering under President Biden’s economy.

The Republican majority must continue to address the issues that matter to the American people. We must address rising crime in major cities and reject soft-on-crime, pro-criminal policies. We must get our fiscal house in order and reduce spending so that we can leave more to the next generation than a crushing deficit. We must do our constitutional oversight of the federal ‘bureaucracy to ensure they work for the American people—not the other way around. And we ‘must continue working to secure the border and protect our national security.

We agreed at the beginning of the Congress that there are three fundamental things the House must do: pass the bills that need to be passed, do the oversight, and rein in the spending. Working with Chairman Green and our leadership, I helped to deliver the most significant legislative accomplishment this Congress: the strongest immigration and border enforcement bill ever. With other committee chairs and the members of the Judiciary Committee, I am doing the oversight and holding the Administration accountable. And I have been among the leaders in pushing for fiscal discipline my entire career.

We are at a critical crossroad in our nation’s history. Now is the time for our Republican conference to come together to keep our promises to Americans. The problems we face are challenging, but they are not insurmountable. We can focus on the changes that improve the country and unite us in offering real solutions. But no matter what we do, we must do it together as a conference. I respectfully ask for your support for Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Sincerely,

Jim Jordan

Sabrina Eaton writes about the federal government and politics in Washington, D.C., for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.