WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 17: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) talks with reporters following the weekly House Republican Conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol April 17, 2018 in Washington, DC.

House Republicans elected Rep. Kevin McCarthy as the chamber's new minority leader on Wednesday, putting him in charge of an unruly caucus that faces a loss of power in January for the first time in eight years.

The California Republican and current majority leader put down a leadership bid from Rep. Jim Jordan, a co-founder and former chairman of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus. McCarthy defeated Jordan by a vote of 159 to 43.

McCarthy in January will succeed House Speaker Paul Ryan, who will retire at the end of his current term, as leader of the House GOP caucus. Republicans elected current Majority Whip Steve Scalise as minority whip, which will make him the No. 2 member of the GOP caucus next year.

McCarthy will have to balance the demands of governing in the minority and leading a party that has increasingly cast itself in the mold of President Donald Trump. The GOP representative, who has himself drifted more toward Trump since the president took office, will also try to figure out how to vault a party that suburban voters wary of the president's party rejected at the ballot box last week.