White House aides and people in President Donald Trump‘s political orbit were pleased to see Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Sen. John Thune (R-SD) elected to lead Republicans in the House and Senate, arguing that they align with Trump’s plan to “take on the radical left.”
Jordan, who has never held a leadership role across his 20 years in Congress, bested Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the majority leader in the outgoing Congress. Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) and House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-MI) both held their leadership positions despite challenges.
And despite efforts from some in the Senate to advance talks about competitive elections, including Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Josh Hawley (R-MO), Senate Republicans opted to maintain their entire leadership team.
TRUMP ‘NOT AT ALL’ WORRIED ABOUT IMPEACHMENT DESPITE BLUE TSUNAMI
Trump himself told the Washington Examiner last week that he planned to stay out of elections and would not endorse any candidates, in either the House or the Senate, for minority leader, and the White House declined to offer a formal statement on Tuesday’s results.
The president, at times throughout his second term, has had a tense relationship with Thune, publicly calling on him to wrangle his conference to pass the SAVE America Act, despite GOP aversion to nuking the filibuster.
However, two senior White House aides suggested to the Washington Examiner that the team is “breathing easy” now that the dust has settled.
“[Jordan and Thune] are both guys we can work with,” one aide explained. “I know there was a lot of talk earlier in the year about the relationship between President Trump and Thune, but that was just overblown media hysteria.”
Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that Jordan’s election was “great news for the Republican Party.”
“Jim Jordan is not only a terrific guy — he is a fighter, and that’s what the GOP is now going to need over the course of the next two years. We’re going to have sham impeachments,” she said. “And nobody was more effective in exposing the sham impeachment of President Trump’s first term than Jim Jordan.”
And Jordan’s brand as a “fighter,” according to a veteran member of Trump’s political team, will be “instrumental” for coordinating with new White House chief of staff Stephen Miller — both in terms of preparing for the “inevitable attempt” by Democrats to impeach the president and stonewalling any overly progressive legislative pushes from the Democratic majorities.
“It’s an interesting position to be in. On one hand, we clearly need to do something to address housing and energy prices to kind of reset our footing for 2028, and that likely means working with the Dems,” that person told the Washington Examiner. “But on the other, just listen to the president, we’re going to fight them tooth and nail to make sure this country doesn’t slip into socialism — and that’s something voters will take notice of as well.”
Democrats, now in the majority in both chambers, are grappling with their own leadership elections.
Though no one has yet formally challenged current House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for speaker in the next Congress, freshmen Democrats have said that their offices are being swamped with constituent calls urging them to back a “change” candidate.
Meanwhile, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) is reportedly seriously considering a challenge to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to be majority leader in the Senate.