House GOP races to lock down new leadership after blue wave

WASHINGTON — A sweeping tide of Democratic wins Tuesday left Republicans preparing for a new face atop the House GOP leadership ranks as the party gears up to defend President Donald Trump from a list of investigations.

It’s shaping up to be a battle between sitting Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, pitting two lawmakers Trump has publicly praised against one another.

Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana had been trying to stay the course before Republicans dropped a stunning amount of seats, including ones considered deep-red. The cascade of losses, which will give Democrats a sizable majority in the 435-member chamber, forced Johnson to stand down. He told his staff on a Wednesday morning call he would not seek the minority leader job for the next Congress when the GOP conference votes behind closed doors next week.

In a possible sign of what’s to come when the often-raucous conference meets to hear from candidates and vote, some GOP insiders were split Wednesday on which lawmaker should take over as leader.

“It might be Jordan’s for the taking. I think the real fight will be at whip and conference chair,” said one GOP source with ties to each member’s office, granted anonymity to be candid.

In a letter to colleagues Jordan circulated Wednesday, he pitched himself as “battle-tested on the oversight front,” which could help as Democrats go full-tilt on probing the Trump administration. “For too long, we have operated without a clear plan to survive the hour or the day in front of us. That will not cut it against an emboldened and energetic Democrat majority,” Jordan’s letter reads.

But another person familiar with Scalise’s thinking said “his No. 1 goal will be to lead the conference back into the majority,” describing Scalise as a “proven and tested leader who is ready on day one.”

“The conference knows him, how he fights, and that he’s a trusted leader,” the person said.

Spokespersons for Scalise and Johnson did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on their plans.

Heading into the midterms, it appeared Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the sitting majority whip, had been working behind the scenes to shore up his standing with House GOP members in a bid to become the No. 2 Republican in January.

Republican Study Committee Chair August Pfluger of Texas has also pitched himself for minority whip, writing in a Wednesday letter to colleagues that he believed his conference needed “fresh ideas” and had “missed many opportunities.”

The scope of Tuesday’s losses had some calling for a completely clean slate, with Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., posting a message on social media to House and Senate brass: “Please do us all a favor and step aside so new leadership can take a truly conservative direction.”

“Having Jordan and Emmer in as leadership won’t be much of a change at the top,” the first GOP source said. “But President Trump should want a warrior like Jordan with impeachment experience in charge, given the Democrats will inevitably be pursuing impeachment by August recess despite their disciplined statements to the media pre-election.”

To that end, Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, likely the incoming House Judiciary Committee chairman, said in a brief interview before the chamber adjourned in September to campaign that “there’s a long list of potentially impeachable offenses” to look at from the president, his family members and inner circle.

An aggressive investigatory push by Democrats could make Jordan, in Trump’s eyes, an attractive candidate to lead the conference. Jordan fought hard against Trump’s two first-term impeachments, including with fiery cable news hits that were praised by the TV-focused chief executive.

‘Civil war’

Whatever happens, it will cap off a rocky ride for Johnson, who claimed the gavel in the tumultuous weeks after Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker in October 2023.

In a statement released early Wednesday morning, Johnson did not reveal his next move.

“While the outcome of this midterm is not what we’d hoped and fought for, a new battle is just beginning. This Democrat House majority will be led by the most radical and extreme leftists in American history,” Johnson said. “However, Republicans will never stop fighting to defend the Constitution and protect the foundations that have made America the greatest nation in the history of the world.”

Notably, during a phone interview with Politico late Tuesday night, Trump was asked about Johnson — but did not endorse him for minority leader.

“I think he’s done a very good job,” the president said, his voice hoarse from an October-long rally blitz that did not pay off for his party. “I mean, they’re going to have to make that decision. He’s going to have to make that decision. But he’s a good person and a good man.”

On Wednesday Trump told reporters at the White House he intended to stay out of the coming House GOP leadership race.

While Republicans are eager to avoid repeating the bitter public battles of the past, the fight for minority leader is in some ways a rerun. Both Scalise and Jordan tried for the speaker’s gavel back in 2023 after McCarthy’s sacking but neither landed the job.

A former high school and college wrestler who later coached grappling, Jordan was once considered too much of a firebrand to lead the entire caucus.

“Early on he wasn’t really given the opportunity to show what he’s capable of because of his steadfast conservative positions,” Ray Yonkura, who was Jordan’s chief of staff for a decade and has done political work for him, told CQ Roll Call in October 2023. “He was oftentimes pushed to the side, or different Republican leaders tried to keep him down.”

“Once he was given an opportunity to show what he’s capable of, I think a lot of people realized that this is somebody whose skill set can actually be good in a leadership role,” Yonkura said then.

While Jordan has faced questions over the years about what he knew about sexual abuse by a doctor at The Ohio State University when he worked there as an assistant wrestling coach starting in the 1980s. Jordan has repeatedly denied knowing of the abuse, and multiple Republicans told CQ Roll Call in 2023 that it hadn’t factored into their support for Jordan.

As for Scalise, he went through a public ordeal in 2017 when he was shot by a gunman at a GOP baseball practice, sustaining serious injuries. He later was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, and in 2024 said he was in remission.

Beyond the House leadership shuffle ahead of the start of the 120th Congress, G. William Hoagland, a former Senate GOP leadership aide, said there would be a broader battle among Republicans as they analyze their losses and look ahead to 2028.

“I take Steve Bannon’s comment recently seriously that the Republican Party will be engulfed in a civil war over the future of the party,” he said, referring to recent comments from Trump’s former chief 2016 campaign and White House strategist. “Expect that civil war to play out over the next couple of weeks in the midst of all the other legislative issues they have to deal with in the lame-duck session.”

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Niels Lesniewski, Savannah Behrmann, Paul Krawczak and Michael Macagnone contributed to this report.

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