Despite a disappointing midterms for the GOP that saw Democrats keep the Senate, Republicans still managed to win a majority in Congress' lower chamber.
Stay in the conversation on politics:With Republicans officially winning the House Wednesday, Nancy Pelosi will not be speaker when the new Congress is sworn in Jan. 3.
McCarthy won the nomination for House speaker on Tuesday, with a formal vote to come when the new Congress convenes in January. Control of the gavel in key committees overseeing the Biden administration means hard-line conservatives will be able to probe what they’ve only been able to raise alarms about since they lost power in 2019.
Some of the most conservative lawmakers have raised the prospect of impeaching Biden, though that will be much harder for the party to accomplish with a tight majority.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell emerged triumphant from the vote, in which he won about 75% of the tally. McConnell gave a smile and a thumbs up as he boarded an elevator on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
The party also elected Montana Sen. Steve Daines as the National Republican Senatorial Committee chair, replacing Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who challenged McConnell for the top GOP leadership role instead. Scott lost to McConnell after three-quarters of the caucus voted for the Kentucky lawmaker. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who voted for Rick Scott, called the closed-door meeting to determine Senate leadership a “cordial” discussion.
“I think for the last two years the Republican Senate Minority did not use all the tools at its disposal and I think that’s insane, so that's the position I articulated forcibly,” he said. Missouri Sen. Josh Harley, who voted for Rick Scott, told reporters after the meeting that the disappointing result of last week’s midterm election is reason enough for a change.
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