Republican Jim Jordan is running against Democrat Tamie Wilson to represent Ohio’s 4th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. The district includes Richland and Ashland counties.
MANSFIELD — Republican Jim Jordan from Champaign County, the incumbent candidate to represent Ohio’s 4th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, stopped at Idea Works for a conversation on Thursday afternoon about his campaign.
The 26-minute interview was conducted with Richland Source Managing Editor Larry Phillips and City Editor Carl Hunnell. Below is the balance of that conversation, which has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Our discussion with Jim Jordan, the Republican Party candidate seeking re-election to the U.S. House from Ohio’s 4th District, touched on a variety of issues, using some of the questions developed by author and reporter Amanda Ripley as a way of cutting through conflict with questions that “complicate the narrative.”
Ripley’s work is aimed at helping reporters and editors dig beneath peopleâs positions and get to their motivations, to cover conflict more thoughtfully, to ârevive complexity in a time of false simplicity.â
Our conversation with Tamie Wilson was published on Sept. 26.
Richland Source: What issues do you think divide residents in the fourth congressional district the most these days?
Jordan: This election is about four-plus-freedom. (It’s about) what the Biden administration and Democrats are doing to your 1st Amendment and 2nd Amendment rights.
But the issues are … and I always say it this way … we went from a secure border to no border. We went from safe streets to record crime. We went from $2 gas to $4 and $5 gas. And we went from stable prices to a 41-year high inflation rate. And all that happened in 21 months. That’s what’s on voters’ minds.
And then in addition to doing that to Americans and to our communities and our families, the Biden administration is literally going after your 1st Amendment rights. The Left which controls that party (is) going after your 1st Amendment rights, your 2nd Amendment rights, due process rights. They’ve weaponized the government, particularly the Department of Justice, to come after their political opposition. That’s what this election’s about.
Richland Source: Are there any answers that you think are being suggested by politicians or elected officials that are oversimplified or answers that sound really good, but, but they’re really oversimplified?
Jordan: All I know is what voters want. They want that situation I just described to change. And the way you change it is you secure the border, you put back in place the policies that work. On Day One, Joe Biden said, ‘We’re gonna get rid of ‘Remain in Mexico.’ We’re no longer gonna build the wall. We’re not gonna deport anyone.’ That’s why we have the problem.
The number came out last Friday, 2.3 million of the ones we know, illegal migrants who’ve entered our country. So the migrants know that. Who wouldn’t wanna come to the greatest country ever? And they know when they get here that they’re not gonna have to stay in Mexico. There’s no wall to climb over and they’re not gonna be deported. They’re gonna get to go wherever they want. So you just have to go back to the policies that we’re working on that issue.
On the spending, or excuse me, on the inflation, I always say it this way. (U.S. Treasury Secretary) Janet Yellen said several months ago this inflation kind of surprised us a little and snuck up on us a little. And I’m like, ‘You spend like crazy. You pay people not to work and you drive up the cost of energy and you’re surprised we have inflation?’
So you have to change those policies. Quit spending, you know, they spent like $4 trillion more. It’s crazy the amounts of money that have been spent … and quit driving up the cost of energy.
On Day One, Joe Biden said, ‘We’re gonna stop the pipeline. We’re not going to let drilling continue in (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and we’re no longer gonna give leases on federal land for new exploration.’
When you do those things, you drive up the cost of energy. Now they’re trying to scramble by begging foreign countries to increase production. He’s begged OPEC, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela all to increase production. And he’s raided the strategic petroleum reserve in an unprecedented way to try to help him not lose as many seats in the midterm. But the answer is to go back to again those policies that worked on energy. You do those two things (and) you solve so much of the inflationary concerns because energy drives it.
Richland Source: Policies aside, it just seems clear that Ohio voters and voters around the country are just more divided than ever on just some fundamental cultural principles. So where does all this distrust come from and how do we fix that?
Jordan:Â It’s interesting because the Left always says, ‘Oh, you conservatives are engaged in a cultural fight.’ And it’s like, ‘We didn’t start the cultural fight. You guys did.’
We actually think, as an example, boys should compete against boys and girls should compete against girls (in sports). We didn’t say the opposite, but you guys did. And then when we say we’re against that, you guys say, ‘Oh, you guys started a culture fight.’ No, we didn’t. You all did.
So we’re just standing up for those kind of common-sense, fundamental principles and values that I think make America great. The Left can say what they want, but they’ve taken just extreme crazy positions. That’s the problem.
Maybe the clearest example is today the Left doesn’t even value the 1st Amendment, something you guys in the press care about deeply because it’s your industry. You’re the industry mentioned in the Constitution.
But the Left doesn’t like the 1st Amendment because now the Left says, ‘If you don’t agree with me, you’re not allowed to talk. And if you try, we’re gonna call you a racist and we’re gonna try to cancel you.’
And that’s what they do. It’s now the Authoritarian Left. It used to be, and I use this example all the time, the Left of a few years ago believed in the 1st Amendment. One of my good friends, (former Congressman from Ohio) Dennis Kucinich, we don’t agree on policy. He’s Left. I’m Conservative.
But Dennis is a fair liberal. He believes in the 1st Amendment. Today’s Left doesn’t and that that’s the problem. They want you to bend the knee and not have an honest, robust debate anymore. And that’s what’s really dividing us. When you say one side is not allowed to talk, then you can’t work with people like that. You have to just beat them in the next election and stop them from doing what they’re doing to the country.
Richland Source: Is there any common ground to be found today between Republicans and Democrats?
Jordan: It used to be Civil Liberties. Dennis and I were on the (House) Oversight Committee together. In fact, 10 years ago, Dennis, when they were in the majority, he chaired the subcommittee that I was on. (When the GOP took control of the House), I chaired that subcommittee and he was the ranking member.
We could work on things together. Like I said, we’re friends. It used to be you could work there, but now with the position they’ve taken on the 1st Amendment, it’s really, really tough to work with them.
I wish there were things that we could unify around. In fact, I went to the (presidential) inauguration back on January 20th, 2021. There were some Republicans who didn’t go, but I went because I think you should.
Part of President Biden’s speech was we need to try to unify. OK, I think that makes sense to every American. But then he turned around and a couple hours after that, he went to the Oval Office and he signed 21 executive orders that divided the country. You can’t say one thing and then go do something else just a couple hours later. So it’s really tough to work with the Left.
Seven weeks ago, there was a poll that came out. The poll said 55 percent of Democrats do not believe that America is the greatest country ever. Now that is scary … when a majority of one of the two major political parties doesn’t believe that we live in the greatest country.
But they don’t believe that. And when they say they want to fundamentally change this place, they’re trying to change things that I think make us the greatest country ever — like the Constitution, like the 1st Amendment, like the Bill of Rights, like the rule of law, like free markets, like capitalism, like equal treatment under the law. All those things that I think are, are hallmarks of why America’s such a great place.
Richland Source: What would you want Democrats to know about you that they may not know today?
Jordan:Â I’m going to work hard to change those four key problems and the attack I see on the Constitution. I think if you talk to people who I have had the privilege of representing, they will tell you that I’ll do what I said I was gonna do.
I actually think I say this all the time, but I say it ’cause I believe it. I think we make the job of member of Congress, or frankly any elected official, we make it way too complicated. What did you tell the voters you were gonna do when you ran for the job? If they put you in office, if they give you the privilege of serving, go do what you said.
And that’s exactly what I’m, what I plan to do. I’ve been very clear, I think the Democrats’ positions on those four issues are wrong.
We’re gonna work to change it and I think we should hold people accountable, part of our constitutional duty. When we take the oath of office January 3rd, if I win, I take the oath of office and swear an oath to the Constitution.
Part of our duty is to do oversight, to do the investigations that need to be done so that the country, the people, we the people, get the facts, get the truth on a host of problems that we see from our federal government.
The border situation, the political nature now that dominates the Justice Department, the Hunter Biden story, the false information we were told during COVID by our government, the debacle that was the exit from Afghanistan, where 13 service members died … one of them from the 4th District of Ohio. All that needs to be looked at so the country gets the facts and I’m committed to doing all that.
Richland Source: Are there any issues where you and Tamie Wilson see eye-to-eye? Is there anything you think she gets right?
Jordan: I don’t know, frankly, what she said and where she stands on things. I just know what I believe and what I’ve committed to do if I get the privilege of serving the families in the 4th District of Ohio. So I don’t know what position she’s taken. I haven’t even seen, I haven’t met her. I haven’t seen her out and about. And we’ve been traveling all over the state and all over the 4th District.
Richland Source: What’s one thing that nobody’s asked you about or something that needs to be addressed that needs more light?
Jordan: What people ask about is …Â everything costs more. For the first time I am nervous because you have business owners telling you, small business owners, ‘I’m a little reluctant to speak out because I don’t know what may happen.’
From the Left, there is this attempt to chill people’s 1st Amendment and free speech liberties. So people are kind of nervous. They’re nervous about the cancel culture.
But they’re mostly nervous about the price of gas, the price of eggs, the price of a home, the price of a car, and whether they’re gonna be safe if they travel to one of our big cities because crime is up in every major urban area in this country. In some cities, it’s frightening … what’s happening in Philadelphia, what’s happening in New York. We’ve seen some of the video and the footage of just terrible, terrible things happening. Subways in New York … what’s what’s going on there? Those are the things that are on people’s minds.
Richland Source: What are kind of the primary or early life events for you that helped to shape your views today?Â
Jordan: My background is wrestling. The biggest impacts on my life were my mom and dad. My dad was a union worker. My mom cleaned houses. They busted their tail so that their kids could go to college. I think I was like the first one in our kind of family to be able to go to college.
My dad would was just old school. Great guy. My dad coached us in Little League. He and my uncle started the kids’ wrestling program at our school. My brother and all our buddies were afraid of my dad. They thought he was like the meanest, toughest guy around. I mean, he’s 5-foot-6, he’s shorter than me, but he just had this presence and they were all afraid of him.
But they all wanted him to be their coach and they would sell out for him on the baseball field. They’d wrestle their heart out for him on the wrestling mat. He’s that kind of guy. So he had a huge impact on not just (his brother Jeff) and me, but like our extended family, my cousins and everyone we seemed to wrestle with down where we’re from. And then a bunch of our buddies.
And then my high school wrestling coach (Ron McCunn), who was the toughest. He was the toughest teacher in our school. He taught chemistry and physics. He was, I think, the toughest wrestling coach in the state. He talked about discipline every day. That is not an exaggeration.
In class, he would say, ‘Jordan, this is not just any class. This is chemistry class. More importantly, it’s my chemistry class. If you want to do well, you’re gonna have to come prepared. You’re gonna have to read the material, you’re gonna have to do the experiments.’
In the wrestling room, oh my goodness, he’d talk about discipline every day. Discipline’s the most important quality we need to accomplish our goals as a team … that you need to accomplish your goals as an individual.
It’s gonna take self-discipline to win matches, self discipline. And I’m like, ‘Would that guy shut up? He sounds like my dad. I get it from my dad all the time. Now I got to get it from Coach McCunn.’
But he had a great definition. My school (St. Paris Graham High School) won 20 state wrestling titles. When my brother was coaching there, we had this big fancy wrestling room with all these banners about state championships and national championships, all of this stuff.
But the biggest banner is on the front wall when you walk in. It’s a statement from Coach McCunn. It’s the McCunn Wrestling Facility. It says, ‘Discipline is doing what you don’t want to do, when you don’t want to do it.’
And back in the day, that meant doing things coach’s way when you would rather do them your way. It meant doing things the hard way when you’d rather do them the easy way. It’s a great definition.
Frankly, I would argue it’s the biggest quality missing in Washington. D.C. In D.C, it’s always about doing things the convenient way instead of doing them the right way, the hard way.
Look, we all fall short in keeping our in self-discipline. We all fall short. But striving for that is a lesson I learned from Coach McCunn. And he impacted so many people, not just wrestlers. We had a bunch of students back in the day who went to our academies and did well cause they were good students and he taught a bunch of them. So my dad and Coach McCunn (were my biggest impacts).
Richland Source: What do you think the media does wrong when it labels candidates ultra conservative or ultraliberal?
Jordan: Well, there’s a big difference between media at the local level and media at the national level. Media at the local level actually report facts. You guys are just fair. You’re gonna present it in a balanced fashion. The media in D.C. … it’s not media. They don’t report facts. They don’t. It’s all just made up and it’s all mainstream. Corporate media is all part of the Democrat Party. Plain and simple.
I don’t know if you read PunchBowl news in the morning. It’s like the news of the day. I read PunchBowl and it’s all skewed to the Left. There is someone in the mainstream press lying about me every single day.
OK, big deal. I am used to it now. But the (national) press, if they would just do what you all do, what people in the in the local press do, which is present both sides (and) present it fair.
And frankly, like even the sports page now. The sports page at the local level, you’re gonna report who won the game. ESPN’s gonna talk about politics. I just wanna watch the top 10 plays and find out who won. I don’t need the politics on ESPN. I can get that on CNN. Just tell me who won the game. Show me web gems, I wanna see the home runs, I wanna see the touchdown. I wanna know who won. I don’t want the politics. But that’s the national press now. So that’s the problem.
Richland Source: What is it going to take to get back to a time in Congress when political opposites like you and Dennis Kucinich could be friends and even work together?
Jordan: It’s going to take the right leadership in the, in the White House. Joe Biden ran as the guy who was gonna do that and has done just the opposite. He’s divided the country so much.
The Left always likes to criticize President Trump, who I think was just the best president we’ve ever had, certainly in my lifetime. They like to say, ‘Oh, President Trump divided.’
President Trump got past the First Step Act (passed), working with the :eft, working with the Black Caucus, working with Democrats and conservative Republicans to do reforms that made sense in our criminal justice system without releasing violent and dangerous people on the streets who are doing harm. He did that and it was a bipartisan effort. That was bringing people together and working like you should.
President Biden has not. There has not been one thing he’s done that was bipartisan in any major way. Everything has been just totally partisan. Even the Left will point to a couple bills where you had some Republican senators help out … like the, the infrastructure bill that wasn’t infrastructure. It had less than 10 percent infrastructure in it. And they like 14 senators I think, and a handful of Republican House members.
So it takes leadership from the top position, from the White House. And we just don’t have it at present.
