Derrick Van Orden’s Choices For Speaker

MADISON, Wis. — As the leaderless House returns to Washington today to elect a new Speaker, Derrick Van Orden has yet to say which MAGA Republican he’s backing for the gig. With Wisconsin’s Republican House members—and Ron Johnson, for some reason—choosing sides in the MAGA faceoff for Speaker of the House, we’re rounding up some quick facts about the top two candidates, and why Derrick Van Orden might be inclined to support them.

Some quick facts about JIM JORDAN:

• Jim Jordan is staunchly anti-abortion. Jim Jordan celebrated the overturning of Roe as a “victory” and celebrated Trump for putting “the right people” on the Supreme Court to deliver the Dobbs decision and end abortion access for millions nationwide. Jordan also supports a new nationwide abortion ban and has urged Republicans to “lean into” abortion restrictions. Van Orden has mirrored these positions, arguing that women accessing abortion services amounted to “genocide.”
• Jordan is an extreme opponent of marriage equality. He sponsored legislation in 2015 to ban same sex marriage in the United States, and led the 2022 GOP effort to block the Respect for Marriage Act, codifying marriage equality into federal law. Van Orden has also been an extremely vocal opponent of abortion, even going so far as to verbally harass a teenaged volunteer at a public library after becoming upset over a display of LGBTQ+ books.
• In the wake of Trump’s 2020 loss, Jordan lied incessantly about the results, making numerous baseless claims of fraud and pushing for Mike Pence to overturn the election by rejecting electoral votes. Van Orden was also front and center during Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, crossing police lines on January 6th to spectate as the Capitol was ransacked by a pro-Trump mob attempting to block counting of electoral votes.

Here’s a few things to know about STEVE SCALISE:

• Long before Derrick Van Orden ran for Congress on repealing the Affordable Care Act, Steve Scalise was fighting to do just that. Both Van Orden and Scalise support a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which ensures millions of Americans have access to affordable, high-quality health care.
• Scalise praised the overturning of Roe v. Wade as a “victory” and introduced legislation that would put doctors in jail for providing abortions. Van Orden is similarly extreme, supporting abortion bans with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.
• Even nine months after Trump’s 2020 loss, Scalise continued to spread lies and deny the result. Similarly, Van Orden falsely claimed in the wake of the 2020 election that there was “a tremendous amount of voter fraud.”

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