Days before the presidential election, Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan called a small group of his closest House colleagues to deliver the news: The ringleader of the conservative agitators would soon mount a challenge to House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Jordan (R-Ohio) had been mulling a long-shot bid for weeks, and during a meeting in Washington the week before the election, some members of the group urged him to go for it. Jordan set up a whip operation to start courting support the day after the election, and his cohorts kept the plan a secret — even from some of their own members.
Then Donald Trump won. And the Freedom Caucus plot, like every other assumption about post-election Washington, was blown to pieces.
For the sake of GOP unity, Jordan fell in line behind Ryan, who was nominated Tuesday for a second term in a secret-ballot internal election. Not a single lawmaker went on record to oppose him. One of the founders of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C), even nominated Ryan for the post.
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