SHELBY — Jim Jordan looked at his staffer and grinned.
“She’s a good reporter. She’s like, ‘One more question’ and this is the third one,” he said, sitting at a conference table inside Shelby City Hall on Monday.
Guilty as charged.
When I got the chance to sit down for a conversation with the congressman, who represents Ohio’s fourth district (which includes sections of Ashland, Richland and Delaware counties), I crammed in as many questions as possible. Because if you’re reading this, he may represent you.
And as the question asker in the room, so do I.
Jordan, a Republican from Urbana, currently chairs the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. He is also a member of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
He is running for re-election after securing his spot on the Republican ticket in May. He’ll face Democrat Joshua D. Kolasinksi in November.
Source Media Properties sat down with Jordan for a brief interview while he was visiting Shelby. We talked about Jordan’s views on topics like data center regulation, health care, the war in Iran and child care (just to name a few).
A transcript of that conversation can be found below. Questions and responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
If I didn’t ask a question that was on your mind, remember, you have the right to ask questions too. Here’s where you can find contact information for Jordan’s office.
Source Media Properties: We know that data centers often don’t produce a lot of long-term jobs. They require expensive power system upgrades that can drive up people’s electric bills, and they use a significant amount of water to cool their servers. What role do you believe data centers play in the country’s future, and how do we balance that with the real concerns that people have about environmental impacts and electricity costs?
Jim Jordan: The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has said that if data centers come into a community, they can’t drive up the cost of electricity for the other consumers, for residents and other users. I think that’s a good thing. I think there’s also been a bill at the Statehouse to study and look into long-term concerns and other concerns about these data centers. I think all those things make sense. Don’t drive up the cost, make sure water concerns and other concerns are being investigated and then make sure that if (data centers) are going to go up, they go up in the right location. You don’t want them in the middle of a residential area. You’ve got to be smart about where they go.
There’s also the idea that we want to make sure we win the AI race against China. People are talking about the implications for national defense, for economic growth. I think the key word here is you’ve got to balance all that, but be super smart in where you locate these things, so that it’s not causing the problems that that we’ve discussed — rates, water, noise. Pick smart locations.
Source Media Properties: We’ve been doing a lot of coverage of child care this year. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce estimated our state’s economy loses out on about $5.48 billion dollars a year due to insufficient child care coverage. Most of that is linked to employee turnover and absenteeism costs.
Meanwhile, child care advocates have argued policies that pay providers based on attendance rather than enrollment can really harm their financial viability because they have to pay teachers whether kids show up sick or not. How do we ensure that fraud doesn’t take place in a way that doesn’t disrupt the child care ecosystem?
Jim Jordan: With fraud in general, you have to have checks and balances on the front end. The best way to stop fraud is to have people on the front end before the dollars leave, making sure that wherever these dollars are going, they’re actually providing the service they say they’re providing.
Up in Minnesota, for example, Feeding Our Future was a program that happened during COVID when kids weren’t in school. The program was designed to give meals to children. The problem was, there were no meals and no kids. It was simply filling out forms and just stuffing money in their pocket. So you have to check on the front end. Is this a legit program? Sometimes that means making them apply on a more periodic basis. More often, they have to apply to the program as an entity who’s going to provide some kind of service. There needs to be those checks and balances on the front end. And then, of course, when fraud exists, you’ve got to have the real deterrent effect, which is, people get prosecuted if they rip off taxpayers.
Specific to the question of, ‘How do we deal with the shortage of people providing care for kids…’ I think this is where welfare reform comes in place. One of the things we did in the Big Beautiful Bill is, if you’re an able-bodied adult, and you’re going to get help from taxpayers in what’s typically called welfare, you’re going to have to do some work. There’s going to be some work requirements. Part of the way you can help people get out of the welfare lifestyle, get to a better position in life, is by getting a job. When some people are going to work, you can have other people on welfare who are going to provide the child care, that could be part of meeting the work requirements. So I think that’s something we have to get innovative in doing, because it will help with the child care effort and satisfy this idea for taxpayers that people who are getting their money should have to, if they’re able-bodied, should have to do some kind of work. I think that makes sense.
Source Media Properties: Are there other ways that make sense for the government to support or possibly reform child care to make it more accessible to working families?
Jim Jordan: I’d have to look at all that, but I think one of the smart things to do is say, let’s have some of the people who are in the welfare system provide care. I think that’s the way to do it, and that can be run out of your county child and family services department.
Source Media Properties: The Biden administration had implemented a rule that would require states to reimburse child care providers who serve families receiving child care subsidies based on a child’s attendance rather than enrollment.
The Trump administration has reversed that rule, so it’s up to the states to decide how they will reimburse providers. What do you think is a smart way for Ohio to approach its reimbursements?
Jim Jordan: If you go that (reimbursement based on enrollment) route, that could be fine, because you don’t want to lose providers, but you’ve got to check and make sure we don’t have people who are just like up in Minnesota, ripping people off and saying, ‘Oh yeah, these people are all enrolled,’ but they’re not showing up every day. There’s got to be that balance and that’s why you need the checks and balances on the front end.
Source Media Properties: Do you think Ohio’s existing fraud detection mechanisms for child care are sufficient, or would you like to see additional reforms there?
Jim Jordan: I’d have to see what the state has in place and this is something we’re looking into.
Source Media Properties: There’s been a lot of conflicting opinions about the recent anti-weaponization fund that President Trump is seeking to establish. Do you support that fund?
Jim Jordan: There’s always been what’s called a judgment fund in the Department of Justice. For example, a few years ago in the Biden administration, this judgment fund paid Peter Strzok $1.2 million and paid Lisa Page $800,000. Of course, Strzok and Page were the people who were targeting President Trump as part of the Comey investigations back in 2016. They were the ones who sent the text messages back and forth, where they were talking about how, ‘We’ll stop Trump.’ There was that one text message from Peter Strzok, where he said, ‘I’m in the northern Virginia Walmart, I can smell the Trump supporters.’ I mean, just bad people who did bad things, but they got paid by the Biden administration because they sued the government, and they got paid $1.2 million and $800,000 respectively, for an invasion of their privacy, even though all these text messages were on their government phone.
I’m thinking about people like Mark Houck, who had his door kicked in at six in the morning, his wife and seven kids were traumatized. They arrested him when he said he would turn himself in. They took him to trial. He was acquitted. He didn’t do anything wrong, but the Biden administration … Mark Houck was a pro-life (advocate) and was protesting in front of an abortion clinic outside of Philadelphia … I think there should be some restrictions placed on who all can qualify. For example, if you assaulted a police officer, I don’t think those kind of people should get money from this fund. So I think that’s the balance you need to have if you move forward with it. But I don’t know if it’s going to happen, frankly.
Source Media Properties: Let’s talk about the war in Iran. What do you think President Trump hopes to accomplish there?
Jim Jordan: The goal has been clear. I have to agree with the President, you can’t let Iran get a nuclear weapon. This regime is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. For 47 years they have killed Americans, killed Israelis, killed others, killed thousands of their own people. They are evil and the idea that they’re going to have a nuclear weapon is wrong. We just can’t let that happen. My background is in the sport of wrestling, and in Iran, wrestling is huge. It’s one of their key sports, the whole area over there – Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia. They took one of their junior champions, a 19-year-old up-and-coming star athlete, who protested. They hung this guy publicly, that’s how evil these guys are. The idea that they get a nuclear weapon is just frightening. So that’s got to be the goal. We hope it happens as quickly as possible. The president has been clear about that. Making sure they do not have nuclear capability is really, really important. That’s what the president thinks, and he told the American people that’s what he was going to do if he got elected. God bless him for doing it.
Source Media Properties: The war has impacted grocery prices and gas prices. What would you say to Americans who are struggling to pay their bills, and are there things that the government can or should be doing to help alleviate that?
Jim Jordan: Yeah and hopefully this war is over as soon as possible. And to your first question, yes, that’s why we cut taxes, so American families keep more of their money. We want the economy growing at a good clip. It has been growing under President Trump, but the inflation is tough, and I would argue most of that’s because of Joe Biden, the huge inflationary increases we saw under him. It takes a while to bring all that down, and we’re working on that, but the sooner the war gets over, the better it will be, because obviously that’s going to impact the gas prices, which has an impact on every family.
Source Media Properties: President Trump’s One Big Beautiful bill increased the budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from just over $10 billion to about $85 billion. What do you hope that those increased funds accomplish? Do you believe that’s a worthwhile investment?
Jim Jordan: I do. President Trump already did exactly what he told the voters he was going to do. The border is secure. We went from 10 million people coming in, illegal migrants entering the country under the Biden administration, to next to nothing. It’s been unbelievable how quickly the border was secured and those resources were to secure it and help maintain that it stayed secure. So I do think that’s been very effective and certainly a campaign promise that President Trump has kept.
Part of the problem is the left has this whole sanctuary jurisdiction concept, which is just crazy. The Democrats, the left, had a three-part plan. Step one, let in 10 million illegal migrants in the four years of Joe Biden. Step two, create sanctuary jurisdictions, which make it difficult to remove those illegal migrants when they commit another crime. And then step three, don’t fund the people who do the removing, which is where we’re at right now. The Democrats won’t fund ICE. So let in a bunch of people, create sanctuary jurisdictions, don’t pay the people who actually do the removing when those illegal migrants commit another crime, that’s what’s going on and we’re trying to stop all that, and it takes resources to do so.
Source Media Properties: A 2025 Gallup poll found that 80% of Americans believe political leaders should compromise with the other party to get things done. Where are some areas that you’ve sought compromise in Washington? And what are some common-sense, common-ground issues that you believe have the potential for meaningful bipartisan legislation?
Jim Jordan: When it comes to civil liberties, I try to work with Democrats, protecting your rights and Americans’ fundamental liberties. One of my good friends, even though he’s a left-wing liberal, and he thinks I’m a conservative, but we’re actually good friends is Dennis Kucinich. Dennis used to represent a district in the Cleveland area. We try to work with him on those issues.
Right now, we’re trying to work with Democrats on this Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reform, and so working with my counterpart on the Judiciary Committee, Mr. (Jamie) Raskin on that. So, typically, when it comes to protecting your rights, your First Amendment liberties, stopping government censorship, that’s where we can find common ground with Democrats and we try to do that.
Source Media Properties: One thing that I’ve seen as an education reporter is that a lot of our local public schools are struggling financially and the biggest driver is increasing health insurance costs for their staff. What do you believe Washington’s role is in reigning in or regulating those costs?
Jim Jordan: Well, it’s not expanding government. The way to deal with lower costs is to give more choice, more transparency, not subsidies from the government. If subsidies from the government were going to lower health care costs, then Obamacare would have made health care cheaper and better. It’s been just the opposite. So, the Democrats want to continue down the Obamacare path that has driven up the cost. I would like to have choice and transparency and competition, and so we’re having that debate.
Source Media Properties : Do you think that’s something that healthcare companies are going to do to be transparent, to give choice, or do you think they have to be held accountable a little bit for that?
Jim Jordan: I think the system is so complicated because there’s so much government that it’s going to take legislatures on the state and federal level to create more transparency, so the patient knows what things cost and the patient can then make decisions. But the debate in Congress was, ‘We need the continuation of the temporary subsidies the Democrats put in, and the Democrats made temporary, we need to continue that.’ I just don’t see how that’s going to lower costs, that’s just going to keep driving up the cost and not helping with the transparency concerns.
