WASHINGTON — The battle for Republican leadership in the House and Senate is on.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) are facing off for the minority leader spot in the next Congress, a rematch of their failed attempts to claim the No. 1 spot after Kevin McCarthy’s ouster three years ago.
Both men have been working the phone lines and courting freshman lawmakers as they jockey to succeed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who decided to step down after the blue tsunami last week.
“They’re going well,” one source told The Post about Scalise’s efforts to court freshman and returning lawmakers.
Scalise, a gunshot and cancer survivor, who has been in a top four House GOP leadership position since 2014 when he was majority whip, touted his experience and “proven track record” in outreach to members.
Jordan, the outgoing House Judiciary Committee Chairman who lost his speakership bid to Scalise in 2023, has fashioned himself as a scrappy outsider and proven fighter.
The two both recognize that Democrats will mount an onslaught of investigations into President Trump and his allies.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, GOP leadership has faced grumbles that the internal election is slated to take place so soon after the historic midterm drubbing.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) urged his colleagues to delay the leadership election so that senators can take a beat and reflect on what went so wrong.
“I’m not going to participate in an election that’s held that early,” Johnson told Scripps News.
The Wisconsin Republican drew surprising support from several senators such as Sens. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), John Kennedy (R-La.), among others who don’t have a reputation for clashing with leadership.
Despite those calls for postponing the election, the House GOP Senate Conference appears poised to barrel ahead with elections nonetheless.
However, GOP senators are set to reflect on last week’s electoral shellacking during a meeting Tuesday morning before the internal leadership election, The Post has been told.
“It was a tough election for us. And I think we need to internalize the message that the voters are sending and rebuild and get ready to get out there and do things better,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters Monday.
“We lost a lot of good Republicans,” he added. “It’ll take a while to build that back.”
President Trump refrained from taking a position on whether Thune should get his leadership spot back again, calling him a “very fine man.”
“I wish they could get more produced,” he told reporters at the White House Monday. “But John’s a good man. I guess they’re going to be voting tomorrow. Or maybe it’s delayed. I don’t know what the status is, but, you know, he’s a friend of mine. I wish the Senate could get more done.”
Speaker Johnson, who emerged out of the speakership chaos that engulfed the GOP in 2023, has been coy about whether he intends to remain in Congress next year.
“I’m not talking about that right now,” he told reporters.
When asked about the drubbing Republicans faced, Johnson contended that “voters made the wrong choice.”
“I really do believe these next two years is gonna be a bit of circus, it’s going to be chaos and I hate to say that, but I think that’s where the Democrats are going to lead the House,” he added.
