NATIONWIDE -- After making headlines for allegedly overlooking abuse, a conservative congressman from Ohio is making new headlines on Capitol Hill.

• Rep. Jim Jordan makes bid for House Speaker
• Jordan faces scrutiny back home in Ohio, where former wrestlers say he turned a blind eye to abuse when he was an assistant coach at Ohio State University
• political analyst and Georgetown associate professor Mark Rom says Jordan stands to gain more than he could lose by entering the speaker’s race

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is making a long-shot bid for House Speaker to replace Rep. Paul Ryan.

Announcing his decision to run, he took a swipe at outgoing House leadership. “Right now, there’s just a handful of people at the top that make all the decisions and that’s not fair to the 435 members of the congress, not fair to the 240 members of the Republican conference,” Jordan said in an interview on Fox News.

Jordan is a conservative firebrand and founder of a group of far-right Republicans called the House Freedom Caucus. He is also an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump.

Fellow conservatives like North Carolina’s Mark Meadows, who currently chairs the Freedom Caucus, are lining up behind his bid for speaker. “That fact is he was a two-time national champion, and I never knew him to get on the mat and try to lose,” Meadows said, referring to his time as a wrestler.

Jordan is currently facing scrutiny back home in Ohio, where former wrestlers say he turned a blind eye to abuse when he was an assistant coach at Ohio State University. He denies those accusations.

“The character that he has represented in this body and has historically represented will serve him well,” Meadows said, defending his colleague and fellow member of the Freedom Caucus.

Regardless, political analyst and Georgetown associate professor Mark Rom calls Jordan a long-shot. Moderate members of Jordan’s own party dislike him, with some going so far as to label him an “obstructionist.”

Still, Rom says Jordan stands to gain more than he could lose by entering the speaker’s race.

“Running can pay other benefits in terms of building support by other members of the House, by strengthening his position within the Freedom Caucus, by increasing his national visibility. All things that can enhance his stature as well as the prominence of the Freedom Caucus,” Rom said.

Rom also believes the influence of the Freedom Caucus could continue to grow over the next few months, especially if the Democrats win back control of the House in the fall’s midterm election.

“They will be a larger share of the Republicans who have survived. That is, the moderate Republicans are the ones who are most likely to lose. The Freedom Caucus members are the most likely to be reelected,” Rom said.

That would give Jordan and his colleagues like Meadows a louder voice in the Republican Party, moving the GOP – at least on Capitol Hill – further to the right.