When the younger Jordan defeated interim appointee Paul Peek in 1942, he became the first man in the history of California to be elected to succeed his father in a state constitutional office.

[4] A veteran of the First World War, Jordan held an early job with the Automobile Association of California and ran his own general insurance agency before joining his father's staff.

After delayed returns in the 1960 presidential election due to hand counting, Jordan championed legislation requiring mandatory use of voting machines.

Jordan's efforts to mandate machine counting spurred development in computing systems in what became Silicon Valley.

Jordan's early death in March 1970 created a vacancy to be filled by then-Governor Ronald Reagan, who believed it was unfair to appoint someone to the office and give that person a leg up in the November 1970 election.