Kevin McCarthy elected minority leader for next Congress

Show Caption Hide Caption Kevin McCarthy selected to lead House GOP Republican Kevin McCarthy easily won an internal party election to take over the shrunken House GOP caucus. His top priority will be to protect President Donald Trump's agenda and try to build the party back to retake the majority. (Nov. 14)

WASHINGTON – Kevin McCarthy defeated Jim Jordan, a co-founder of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, to become House minority leader Wednesday.

McCarthy, from California, beat Jordan, who is from Ohio, 159-43, according to McCarthy's spokeswoman Erin Perrine.

Jordan, who helped found the Freedom Caucus – a group of more than 30 conservatives known for bucking their party’s leadership – was not expected to win.

McCarthy called the House GOP leadership conference a “healthy debate.”

“I want to thank Jim Jordan for running,” he said after the vote.

Politico reported Wednesday that President Donald Trump had urged McCarthy to give Jordan the top GOP slot on the powerful House Judiciary Committee. McCarthy's team did not immediately respond to a request for comment about that issue.

Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise was elected minority whip; he has held the position in the majority.

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney will be Republican conference chair. Her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, stopped by the meeting Wednesday.

NEW: Former VP Dick Cheney walks into the House GOP Conference Leadership election with his daughter Rep @Liz_Cheney who is running today for GOP Conference Chair @NBCNews @MSNBC pic.twitter.com/SGKj8FyWLJ — Alex Moe (@AlexNBCNews) November 14, 2018

North Carolina Rep. Mark Walker, head of the Republican Study Committee, will be vice chair.

Newly elected House members, in town for orientation, participated in the leadership vote.

After the vote, McCarthy said, “We serve in a divided government in a divided country. Our goal is to unite us back together again."

He said his second goal is winning back the majority.

“We know the challenge of what we’re working on. We wanted to hit the ground running. We know the Democrats have a plan: they want to disrupt, they want to try to impeach, and they want to stall what achievements we’ve been able to move forward. But we know America is too great for such a small vision.”

McCarthy said he was proud of the GOP’s accomplishments of the last Congress: low employment, changes to Veterans Affairs, rebuilding the U.S. military and getting raises for service members, combating the opioid epidemic, and ending online human trafficking. But he said the party's work isn’t done.

“We will work with anybody across that aisle if they are there to work to move America forward. But let me be very clear: If their agenda is simply investigations, impeachment, and not focused on the hard-working American public, we’ll be there to defend the American public.”

It’s official @GOPLeader is running for minority leader pic.twitter.com/MBdOBklzRE — Eliza Collins (@elizacollins1) November 7, 2018

The victory Wednesday was not a surprise to McCarthy. He told Politico last week that he expected to win.

“I had the votes the first day,” he said. Retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., had endorsed his deputy, and McCarthy is close to President Trump.

Democrats flipped more than 35 seats last week, taking back control of the House and forcing Republicans into the minority. The Democratic leadership election will take place later this month. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is expected to be elected speaker, but she faces opposition from a bloc of newcomers and a handful of incumbents.

McCarthy, elected to Congress in 2006, quickly moved up within the party, most recently holding the majority leader position. In 2015, it appeared he would succeed retiring speaker John Boehner of Ohio. At the last minute, he was forced to pull his bid after it became clear he would not get the 218 votes required to be speaker. Ryan eventually took the job.

The incoming GOP conference will be smaller and more conservative. With a handful of exceptions, Republicans knocked out in the midterms were from the party’s moderate and establishment wings. And some safe GOP seats left open by members who retired or left office were filled by more conservative members.

Senators of both parties also had their leadership elections Wednesday morning, but there were no major changes. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will remain the Senate majority leader and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will continue as the Democratic leader.

In a press conference Wednesday morning, McConnell vowed to work across the aisle with the Democrat-controlled House.

"We'll be looking for ways now that we have divided government again to make some progress for the country," McConnell said.

The Republicans' No. 2 position is term-limited so Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, will leave leadership. South Dakota Sen. John Thune will take his place. Other Republicans will move up, which left an opening for the No. 5 spot. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst got that job.

Ernst's post will mark the first time in nearly a decade that a GOP woman has had an elected seat at the leadership table. The last woman in the group was Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in 2010. After losing the Republican primary, she left the post. Although Murkowski went on to a win a write-in campaign for Senate, she did not return to leadership.

Democrats had no shake-ups.

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