Jim Jordan, the Ohio congressman who is seeking to become House speaker, is a prominent celebrity on the far right of US politics – and a magnet for controversy who a former speaker from his own party once called a “political terrorist”.
Jordan, 59, was elected to Congress in 2006 from a conservative, rural district of Ohio. A high school and college wrestling champion, he made his mark on the House as a founder of the hard-right Freedom caucus, helping oust former speaker John Boehner, who was not deemed sufficiently extreme.
