STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
House Republicans are preparing for life in the minority come January, and they will have a new leader.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Yeah. That's Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan. He was selected yesterday as Republicans' top leader in the House after a vote by secret ballot.
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JIM JORDAN: When Democrats offer more government, we'll offer more freedom, and we will bring that fight in committee, on the floor and on the stump every single day.
MARTIN: Jordan will replace Speaker Mike Johnson, who, after last week's midterm losses, says he is stepping down as the top House Republican.
INSKEEP: NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt is also here in Studio 31. Barbara, thanks for coming by.
BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: My pleasure.
INSKEEP: OK. So there were two contenders to replace Mike Johnson. One is Jim Jordan. The other is Steve Scalise, who's the No. 2 Republican in the House and has been in or around leadership for many years. What was Jordan's pitch here?
SPRUNT: Well, Jordan positioned himself as a fighter. You know, he told his colleagues before the vote that offense, not defense, wins elections. He called himself battle-tested. He's a veteran of the Judiciary and Oversight Committees, two committees that are going to play a very big role in the new Congress. Democrats already have a long list of targets there. And Jordan used that in his pitch to his colleagues, you know, that his leadership experience on both committees would help him navigate those impending investigations.
INSKEEP: And apparently enough Republicans agreed with that pitch. So what does that say about the party's expected strategy?
SPRUNT: Well, I see this election as sort of a choice between continuity and change. Jordan is certainly the change candidate. He's the co-founder of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, which, as we all know, was often a thorn in the side of Republican leadership. Scalise is seen as more of a moderate, an extension of that leadership era of Johnson. And so the vote tells me that House Republicans wanted a clean break from that leadership era. I think folks are craving a new chapter after their massive loss last week.
I also think the choice of Jordan is illuminating when you take it alongside the placement of Stephen Miller as the president's new chief of staff. Both have a very combative approach to politics, so much so that I remember former House Speaker John Boehner calling Jordan a legislative terrorist. So the elevation of these two suggests to me that Republicans in the minority are preparing to lean into the fight rather than leaning into compromise.
INSKEEP: Just a reminder, the guy calling Jordan a legislative terrorist is himself a Republican.
SPRUNT: There we go.
INSKEEP: So the guy has sometimes criticized his own party and angered people in his own party. Now, what about the leadership elections in the U.S. Senate?
SPRUNT: Well, Senate Republicans held their own closed-door vote yesterday to pick their leaders. There was a small group who wanted to delay the vote, take more time to process the election results. But they ultimately moved ahead with the vote. John Thune, now the majority leader in the Senate, was reelected.
INSKEEP: What about on the Democratic side?
SPRUNT: Well, there'll be elections next week. The current Democratic leaders are expected to stay in place. That's Hakeem Jeffries in the House, Chuck Schumer in the Senate, both New Yorkers. It's not to say that there aren't some rumblings going on.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
SPRUNT: No one has come forward to challenge them directly for these top jobs, but there is a group of senators who have said, you know, they want new leadership. That includes Bernie Sanders of Vermont. No surprise there. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. There are some senator-elects as well, like Annie Andrews of South Carolina, who have said during the campaign they want to see new change.
INSKEEP: I wonder if lawmakers are trying to respond to the rumblings of voters who seem unhappy with current leadership, would like to see, in some cases, Schumer go. But Schumer just coordinated a massive election win.
SPRUNT: Well, therein lies the tension, right? But I think that speaks to the challenge is that a lot of Democrats feel that they got a message loud and clear from voters, and if they don't respond in a way that reflects that sort of hunger for change in leadership, they feel that they may fall short.
INSKEEP: NPR's Barbara Sprunt. Thank you.
SPRUNT: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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