House Republicans on Tuesday elected Jim Jordan as minority leader for the next Congress, beating House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, according to multiple sources.
Jordan got 106 votes to Scalise’s 73 votes, the sources said.
As of Tuesday, House Democrats hold a 254-166 margin over Republicans going into the 120th Congress with 15 races still undecided.
In the Senate, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota will remain as the party’s leader despite some in his conference delaying the vote while they discussed the results of the midterm elections and the party’s path forward.
Jordan has led Republicans at the Oversight and Judiciary committees, where his hardline approach and reputation as an ardent defender of President Donald Trump have made him a popular cable TV news guest.
First elected in 2007, Jordan is a two-time NCAA champion wrestler.
Scalise, first elected in 2008, was critically injured during a shooting at practice for the congressional baseball game in 2017. He’s served at the Republican leadership table for more than a decade — including as the GOP’s No. 2 leader since 2023. Scalise is also in remission from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, which he was treated for in late 2023, taking a six-week absence to undergo chemotherapy.
Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the current majority whip, was elected to serve as GOP minority whip, beating a challenge from Texas Rep. August Pfluger. And Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan was elected to serve as GOP conference chair — the No. 3 position among House Republicans in the minority — according to multiple sources. She beat challenges from Rep. Erin Houchin of Indiana and Rep. Greg Steube of Florida.
Jordan and Scalise, along with Emmer, ran for speaker in 2023 when then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted after a revolt from a small group of far-right Republicans.
Speaker Mike Johnson was elected after a chaotic battle that shut the conference down for three weeks.
Johnson announced last week that he wouldn’t stand for election as minority leader, giving the GOP conference an opportunity to pick up the pieces of their shattered majority after the midterm elections by choosing fresh leadership or run it back with Johnson’s top two deputies, Scalise and Emmer.
Senate leadership elections
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans on Tuesday afternoon approved Thune by acclimation to remain the conference’s leader in the minority after “family” discussions about the best path forward for the party.
Senate Republicans gathered Tuesday morning for what was scheduled to be their leadership elections, but rather than holding votes, they instead engaged in what was described as a “frank” discussion about how Republicans ought to respond in the wake of last week’s bruising midterm elections that left Republicans down at least seven Senate seats with two races yet to be decided.
Though some Republicans said they were unsure whether they wanted to stick with Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota as their leader following voter backlash in the midterms, no one else emerged as a potential challenger.
In addition to Thune, the caucus re-elected the rest of its previous leadership: Sen. John Barrasso will remain as Senate GOP whip and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas will remain Republican Conference chair.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, who was unopposed, was elected chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Republican conference’s campaign operation, replacing South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
In a post on X, Thune said he “appreciated the opportunity to have an open, honest, and transparent conversation with my colleagues today,” and that the Republican team remains “united in our commitment to advancing conservative priorities, working with President Trump and our colleagues in the House, and holding the line against Democrats’ efforts to enact their far-left liberal agenda.”
In a letter sent Monday obtained by ABC News, dozens of Republican National Committee members called for Republicans to delay leadership elections in both the House and the Senate for 30 days to give the party time to evaluate its losses and how leadership candidates plan to move the party forward.
“There is no way to sugarcoat what happened on Election Day. From coast to coast, and in some of the reddest parts of the country, Republicans were humiliated. These devastating losses are historic, and they threaten to undo all the work of the last 10 years,” the letter addressed to Congressional Republicans reads.
“Members deserve to understand what went wrong and hear how those seeking leadership intend to address those failures before casting their votes. That assessment should inform the choice of leadership. Holding elections first gets that backward.”
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