Reported move from Republican speaker of House comes in light of party’s disastrous midterms defeat US midterms 2026 live – latest updates Tell us: what do you want to know about the midterm election results? Mike Johnson , the Republican speaker of the House, has said he is not planning to pursue the role of minority leader once his…
Page B55From§Eachthe evening edition — 10 November 2026
House GOP fires one man over a worst-in-a-decade loss; Senate GOP keeps its leader by acclamation
As it ran on the front
Jim Jordan is the new House Republican leader. The news is the vote total: 106 to 73, Steve Scalise losing the job to the man who co-founded the House Freedom Caucus to make leadership's life difficult. That is the whole turnover, as a scoreline.
The obituary starts earlier. On November 4th, Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he would not run for minority leader, the first man to leave the stage after Republicans took their worst midterm defeat in a decade. The same day, Jordan announced he was running, teeing up the fight with Scalise. The same day, asked about the race, President Trump said he would stay out of it. "The speaker was fantastic," he told reporters. "All good people." He did not say whether the fantastic people should keep their jobs.…
…(cont) Two days later, on November 6th, Senator Ron Johnson tried to stop the clock, writing to Senate Republican Conference Chair Tom Cotton that holding leadership elections on schedule was "political malpractice." He and Rick Scott pushed to delay the vote. The vote happened anyway, on schedule, Tuesday. By 3:40 in the afternoon, a Senate GOP aide announced John Thune had been re-elected leader "by acclamation" — the word for a vote nobody bothered to count because the outcome was never contested. The revolt had an afternoon. It did not have a candidate.
This is not new hogwash. Back in September, Vice President JD Vance was asked to endorse Thune for another term and said it wasn't his business to do so — a vice president ducking his own party's Senate leader two months before the vote, while the president was feuding with Thune over an election bill the Senate had refused to pass. Even the White House could not work up the nerve to back a change it never actually asked for.
So count what moved. Lisa McClain kept her gavel as conference chair, 93 votes to 57. Brian Jack takes over the campaign arm aimed at 2028, the next time the House is up. Jim Jordan sits where Scalise sat. John Thune sits where Thune always sat.
The dead: the promise of generational change Republicans made themselves after the worst losses in decades. It was preceded in death by Mike Johnson's exit, announced November 4th before anyone had to push him. It is survived by Jim Jordan, new in the chair, and by John Thune, not new in his at all.
In lieu of flowers, watch what the new furniture does with the old majority's old bills.
“They tell you they heard the voters. Then they fire the one guy whose seat everyone already expected open and leave the Senate leader in place by a vote nobody even counted. The message is the same guy keeps the gavel, they just changed which coat rack it hangs on.”
“Look, Jim Jordan is a real reformer, founded the Freedom Caucus to shake things up — that's change, that's accountability. And Thune winning by acclamation, that just shows unity, the conference coming together behind — okay, acclamation means nobody challenged him. That's not unity, that's nobody running. Did I say unity? Strike that.”
The receipts
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan defeated Majority Leader Steve Scalise for the role of minority leader.
Democrats are running an average of 11.5 points ahead of their 2024 baseline across 2026 special elections MultiState Elections, 2026 special-election tracking
Senate Republicans re-elect John Thune as leader after midterm shellackingSenate Republicans reelected John Thune as their leader Tuesday morning, brushing aside a last-minute revolt from his right flank.
In the House, Republicans signaled a desire for fresh leadership after their biggest election defeat in decades. In the Senate, they re-elected their current leader.
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) won reelection to be the GOP conference chair as Republicans transition to the minority next year, where messaging will play a key role amid their efforts to counter the Democrats’ agenda. McClain beat Reps.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) announced Wednesday he will run for minority leader, formally entering the race to lead House Republicans in the next Congress after they suffered a major blow in the midterms. He will likely face a contentious fight against current House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.). Speaker…
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) will lead Republicans in the minority next year, securing another term after conservatives attempted to delay their internal conference vote. Thune and the rest of his leadership team were elected in a closed-door, secret ballot on Tuesday that grew contentious over the outcome of the midterm…
House Republicans on Tuesday elected Jim Jordan as minority leader for the next Congress, beating Majority Leader Steve Scalise, according to multiple sources.
John Thune secured another term as Senate GOP leader despite Ron Johnson and Rick Scott pushing to delay elections after midterm losses.
Jordan, the hardline conservative from Ohio, beat fellow congressman Steve Scalise by a vote of 106-73; Thune won re-election without a challenger Republicans elect Jim Jordan as House minority leader after party’s midterm defeats Sign up for the US Breaking News email During his press conference, Hegseth was resolute that the articles…
Rep. Brian Jack (R-GA) defeated Rep. Rudy Yakym (R-IN) to become the next National Republican Congressional Committee chairman for the 120th Congress starting in January 2027.
Sen. John Thune (S.D.) won re-election to serve another term as Senate Republican leader on Tuesday after a bruising showdown with conservative critics in the Senate Republican conference. A Senate GOP aide announced late in the afternoon that Thune had been re-elected as leader “by acclamation,”
President Donald Trump refused to weigh in on the House GOP leadership race to replace Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in the top Republican spot next Congress. “We’ll stay out of it,” Trump told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) bested Reps. Erin Houchin (R-IN) and Greg Steube (R-FL) to win another term as chair of the House Republican Conference next Congress.
Republicans pick Jordan as House leader and John Thune as Senate leader for last two years of Trump’s presidency US politics – live updates Republicans have elected veteran congressman Jim Jordan as their new leader in the House of Representatives, putting a strident defender of Donald Trump at the helm of their conference as they…
Democrats are running an average of 11.5 points ahead of their 2024 baseline across 2026 special elections MultiState Elections, 2026 special-election tracking
Ron Johnson presses to delay Senate GOP leadership elections: ‘Political malpractice’Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is leading an effort to postpone next week’s scheduled elections for the Senate GOP leadership team after the party’s bruising midterm elections performance. In a letter that he plans to send Monday to Senate Republican Conference Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) and obtained by the Washington Examiner, Johnson called…
The House Republican conference elected Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on Tuesday to serve as minority leader in next year’s Congress. The victory marks the first time a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus has held the position of party leader in Congress.
Senate Republicans reelected Sen. John Thune as their leader, staying the course as they prepare to enter the minority after their brutal midterm losses.
· Vance: ‘It’s not my business’ to endorse Thune for another term as Senate leader from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.