Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan won the race to lead House Republicans on Nov. 10, 2026, as his party prepared to move into the minority following the midterm elections. Jordan has represented Ohio’s 4th Congressional District since 2007. He and his wife, Polly, raised four children in the part of western Ohio where they both grew up.
Their children are Rachel, Benjamin, Jessie and Isaac, according to the Wisconsin Wrestling Hall of Fame. Wrestling is a thread that runs through the family. Jim competed for Wisconsin and won two NCAA championships, and both Benjamin and Isaac went on to wrestle for the Badgers. The family also has a connection to college basketball through Jessie’s husband, former Iowa player Jarrod Uthoff.
The children’s own athletic records and interviews offer much of the public information about them. Their father’s campaign biography gives a broader picture of the family today, listing four children and eight grandchildren and saying that Jim and Polly still live near where they grew up.
Who are Jim Jordan’s four children?
Rachel, Benjamin, Jessie and Isaac grew up in a family with strong ties to Champaign County. Jim was a four-time Ohio high school wrestling champion at Graham High School. He got to know Polly through her brothers, who competed in the sport with him. The couple started dating as teenagers and later settled near Urbana.
Rachel is the least publicly documented of the four. The Wisconsin Wrestling Hall of Fame identifies her as a daughter of Jim and Polly and describes the siblings as active in sports. Jessie’s connection to college athletics received more public attention through her relationship with Uthoff, who spoke about their plans while playing at Iowa.
Benjamin is also known as Ben. His years wrestling at Wisconsin continued a family connection to Madison that dated to Jim’s college career in the 1980s. Isaac followed a similar route and went on to build a college record that put him among Wisconsin’s most successful wrestlers of his era.
What did Benjamin and Isaac Jordan do in wrestling?
Ben competed for Wisconsin after wrestling in Ohio. He earned All-American honors in his final college season, placing at the 2012 NCAA championships at 165 pounds. He and Isaac competed for the Badgers in different periods, and both wrestled at 165 pounds during their college careers.
Isaac earned All-American honors four times. In his final season, 2016–17, he finished fourth at the NCAA championships and fourth at the Big Ten championships. Wisconsin recorded his career mark as 113 wins and 18 losses. His senior season alone included 28 victories, and he lost just one dual meet that year.
Isaac’s father competed at a lighter weight. Jim won his NCAA championships at 134 pounds in 1985 and 1986. The family’s connection to Wisconsin therefore spans multiple decades, from Jim’s titles to Ben and Isaac’s own NCAA finishes.
How is Jessie Jordan connected to college basketball?
Jessie married Jarrod Uthoff, who played for the Iowa Hawkeyes and later played professionally. Uthoff started his college career at Wisconsin before transferring to Iowa. He became one of Iowa’s leading players and spoke publicly about his relationship with Jessie while he was still in college. Their connection brought another Big Ten sport into a family closely associated with wrestling.
Jim has occasionally shared what it was like to become a parent. In a 2022 interview, he said getting married and raising children made him think differently about government spending and contributed to the political outlook he and Polly developed as young parents. His remarks focused on what changed for him, while the children have generally kept their personal lives separate from his work in Congress.
By the time the House Republican conference elected Jordan as its leader in 2026, the family had grown to three generations. His campaign counts eight grandchildren. The public record of the children’s own lives is most detailed on the wrestling mat and the basketball court, where Ben, Isaac and Jessie’s husband each developed ties to college athletics.