The 2024 election cycle has ended, with Republicans holding control of all three branches of government. The Washington Examiner interviewed over two dozen new members as they prepare to take office in January. Part 2 of Capitol’s new crop will focus on four incoming House Republicans who are poised to be champions of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term agenda.
Congress‘s incoming freshman class includes a group of four Republicans who have struck up an early friendship as they prepare to work to deliver on President-elect Donald Trump’s second-term agenda.
Rep.-elects Brandon Gill (R-TX), Brian Jack (R-GA), Addison McDowell (R-NC), and Riley Moore (R-WV) were all endorsed by Trump during their congressional runs, and have already started seizing on GOP leadership opportunities.
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Gill, who founded the DC Enquirer and is the son-in-law of conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, was elected the Republican class president. Riley, who is the nephew of Sen. Shelley Capito Moore (R-WV), was elected the freshman representative to House Republican leadership, while Jack — a former Trump aide — won his bid to be the freshman representative to the Steering Committee. McDowell, who is close friends with Donald Trump Jr., is also likely to become a heavyweight in the 119th Congress due to his Trumpworld ties.
“All four of us, we’re kind of … this new right conservative younger group of folks that are really in alignment — all four of us are, and particularly in alignment with President Trump’s agenda and what I call, kind of the new, new direction of the party,” Moore told the Washington Examiner.
McDowell said that he believes the four men have “very different but complementary skill sets” that will allow them to take the “mandate that we just got in the election and enable it.”
In particular, McDowell emphasized the crisis at the southern border as a top priority. For McDowell, the issue is personal, as his younger brother, Luke, died from fentanyl poisoning in 2016 when he was 20 years old.
“We’re committed to securing the border, building a wall, and combating fentanyl trafficking,” McDowell told the Washington Examiner. “People are being poisoned.”
He continued, “That’s an important issue to me, but I think that’s why President Trump knew that I would be such an ally for him in this Congress, because, you know, he’s kind of the first person that really took the border seriously and made it a huge issue.”
The four men’s friendship with each other started at different points, with some of them knowing each other professionally for years prior to launching their House bids.
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Gill, 30, and Jack, 36, met when Jack was an aide to Trump and served as his White House political director. Moore, 44, who is West Virginia’s state treasurer, also met Jack during his time working for Trump.
However, Jack told the Washington Examiner that the group became “fast friends” during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee earlier this year.
“A lot of this started, frankly, when we were in Milwaukee, I hosted a lunch, and at that lunch, we had about 12 to 14 folks who are now members of Congress, but it was an opportunity for us, since we were all at the National Convention, to get to know each other a little better over a long lunch,” Jack explained. “I think relationships started to develop there, but thereafter, we just became fast friends.”
“I’ve learned and been told by many people that the friends you developed during orientation, the friends you developed during the campaign before you are elected, are the friends that you’ll have for a lifetime,” said Jack. “So I’m extremely excited about it, and I think all four of us share the same optimism about what we can accomplish this Congress.”
The GOP quartet wants results on Trump’s “America First” priorities.
“The biggest thing is that we’re looking to execute on the Trump agenda,” Gill told the Washington Examiner. “Our goal is to be able to go back in two years, be able to tell our voters and our constituents that we did the things we said we were going to do in Washington, and we’re looking to be serious legislators and to really get stuff done.”
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Shared interests in sectors of life outside of politics have also bonded the men. McDowell and Moore, in particular, have bonded over hunting, whereas McDowell and Jack are both Braves fans.
Gill and McDowell, both 30, meanwhile are at similar stages in life, the North Carolinian told the Washington Examiner, with both men being married and recently having children.
“[Gill’s] got one daughter. I’ve got two daughters,” McDowell said.
Capitol Hill alliances often garner national attention. The “Squad,” a group of hard-left Democrats that includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), is one of the more well-known political groups in Washington, D.C.
But before the “Squad” Democrats, there were the “Young Guns,” a trio of House Republicans that included now-former Reps. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Paul Ryan (R-WI), and Eric Cantor (R-VA), each of whom ascended to House leadership. The Young Guns, who authored a book by the same name, coined themselves as the “new generation of conservative leaders.”
So far, the Republican freshmen haven’t dubbed a name for themselves. When asked if they’ve talked about one, perhaps even the “Quad,” the four men said they haven’t discussed it as a group.
“I don’t think we’ve thought of branding ourselves necessarily at all,” said Moore. “I think there is something to be said about all of our ages, experience, and where we are as it relates to the party, particularly what I call the, you know, the realignment, almost of the Republican Party, towards a more Trump-aligned policy.”
“We’re all strong conservatives, obviously in support of President Trump,” Moore continued. “I think this is the direction it’s going, and certainly we’re kind of on, at least in our age group, on the leading edge of that. So, I think it’s exciting.”
Gill, who shared a report last week that dubbed him, Jack, and Moore the “three amigos,” similarly told the Washington Examiner that the group hadn’t workshopped any names.
“There hasn’t been talk internally yet, but we’ll see what happens,” said Gill.