Republicans, reeling from an election drubbing, will choose their leadership in Congress

WASHINGTON — After a blue tidal wave swept them from power, House and Senate Republicans will try to pick up the pieces Tuesday and select their leadership teams for the new Congress.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has already heeded his party’s call for new blood, announcing he will forgo a bid for minority leader and step down from leadership. But other GOP leaders in both chambers are fighting to hang on to power in the wake of last week’s historic midterm drubbing.

The House: Scalise vs. Jordan

In the House, Johnson’s decision has triggered a two-person race for minority leader. Johnson’s trusted top lieutenant and fellow Louisiana Republican, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, is fending off a challenge from Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, the founding chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.

13:11

Both are allies of President Donald Trump and ran unsuccessfully for speaker in 2023 after Kevin McCarthy was ousted. The elections will be held behind closed doors and by secret ballot. Candidates will make their pitches to the conference beginning at 9 a.m. ET, with a vote in the afternoon.

Scalise made the pitch to colleagues that he can unify factions of House Republicans against the “socialists” coming to Washington, while Jordan, a former Oversight Committee chairman, argued that he’s best positioned to combat Democratic investigations of the Trump administration and its allies, telling colleagues he’s “battle-tested on the oversight front and I know the Democrats’ playbook.”

Either will need a majority of the conference to vote for him to secure the job.

Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., is seeking the whip job, the party’s top vote counter and the No. 2 post in the minority. But he faces an insurgent challenge from August Pfluger of Texas, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus of conservatives on Capitol Hill.

And House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain of Michigan is trying to beat back challenges from two colleagues: Erin Houchin of Indiana, who holds a lower-level leadership post, and Greg Steube of Florida, who berated the current leadership team for choosing “accommodation over conviction.”

“We’re ready to move on. We need a pivot,” a House GOP lawmaker who is backing Jordan over Scalise told NBC News on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly about the rival candidates. “Everything is on the table” after the Democratic landslide, the lawmaker said.

The Senate: Thune faces grumbling

Senate Republicans also are poised to hold a closed-door vote Tuesday to pick their leaders. Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota is running for minority leader, and so far nobody has announced plans to oppose him.

But a small group of Senate Republicans has sought to delay the elections, saying the party needs more time to process the election results.

“A week ago, we had the worst election result in decades. We need a discussion about what went wrong, how we fix it, what we stand for, and how our agenda must focus on the concerns of the American people,” Sen. David McCormick, R-Pa., said in a statement.

“As I’ve shared with Leader Thune, I don’t believe we should move to leadership elections until we have digested and debated the lessons of the midterms and how to move forward,” he said. “We need leadership in place fast, but Tuesday is too soon.”

Five other Senate Republicans, led by Budget Committee Chairman Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, sent a letter to Senate Republican Conference Chairman Tom Cotton of Arkansas asking for “a robust discussion and evaluation of how those running for leadership intend to lead” before the elections are held Tuesday morning.

As in the House, senators’ votes are cast by secret ballot, and candidates require a simple majority of the conference to win.

Apart from Thune, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming and Cotton are expected to win their races to stay on as the second-ranked and third-ranked Republicans in the next Congress.

Jeffries and Schumer favorites to lead Dems

After last week’s Democratic rout, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, both New York Democrats, are favorites to be the next House speaker and Senate majority leader.

But they, too, face grumbling from rank-and-file members.

No one has emerged to challenge either for the top jobs, though Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., opened the door Monday to potentially running for majority leader amid a push from the grassroots to find an alternative to Schumer.

A person familiar with Van Hollen’s thinking told NBC News on Monday: “The senator has received an outpouring of calls on running for majority leader and is now in active listening mode. The door is not shut.”

Democrats at the Senate’s new-member orientation Monday said the question of their leadership team hasn’t come up in private conversations.

“Most of us are just trying to figure out where our office is and how to find the bathroom,” said Sen.-elect Peggy Flanagan, D-Minn. “It’s really exciting to be here and to meet a lot of my colleagues who’ve been campaigning. I know how hard we’ve been working. And to be here together — it’s really exciting.”

As for Van Hollen’s potentially running for majority leader, Flanagan said she is “certainly open to new leadership” but is “not ready to make any commitments at this point.”

Senate Democrats will elect their leadership team in a private meeting in early December, while House Democrats will pick their team next week.

Several progressives have said they are undecided about whether to back Jeffries for speaker as grassroots groups urge the party to more aggressively confront Trump and enact progressive policies.

“We’re not withholding votes. What we’re doing [is] saying we’re undecided,” said Rep.-elect Adam Hamawy, D-N.J. “We want to sit and have a conversation about the issues and what’s the plan going forward.”

But Jeffries has such a large majority — NBC News projects Democrats will secure 259 seats — that he can afford roughly 40 defections and still win the 218 votes needed to become speaker on the House floor on Jan. 3.

“We’re going to work as hard as we can to get to the 218 number, and we’re confident that we will get to that number and beyond,” Jeffries told reporters when he was asked about disgruntled progressives.

Jeffries and his top lieutenants, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, Pete Aguilar of California and Ted Lieu of California, are so far running unopposed for the top four leadership posts: speaker, majority leader, majority whip and Democratic Caucus chair.