McCarthy elected House GOP leader for next Congress

The California Republican defeated conservative hard-liner Jim Jordan for the post.

California Republican Kevin McCarthy will be the House GOP leader during the 116^th Congress, after he easily beat back a challenge from conservative hardliner Rep. Jim Jordan during a party meeting on Wednesday.

McCarthy got 159 votes to Jordan’s 43 in the members-only session, according to Republican sources in the room.

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The victory seals McCarthy years-long drive to rise to the top of the House Republican Conference, an effort that had been derailed by Jordan and the House Freedom Caucus in 2015.

At that point, McCarthy was running for speaker, but ran into opposition from the hard-line Freedom Caucus and withdrew his name for consideration. That cleared the way for Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to become speaker.

Ryan announced he would retire from the House in April; amid intense jockeying behind the scenes to replace him, McCarthy consistently remained the frontrunner.

House Republicans also filled out the rest of their leadership team for the new Congress with few surprises.

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) will be minority whip, and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo .) — a rising star in the party — will be Republican Conference chairwoman.

McCarthy’s victory now is a bittersweet one, since House Republicans will be out power.

Dragged down by history and President Donald Trump’s dismal poll numbers, Democrats enjoyed their biggest House victory since the Watergate scandal of the 1970s. Democrats are on track to gain 35 to 40 seats, including a number in McCarthy’s home state of California, where the GOP has been reduced to a minor player.

McCarthy vowed to help lead Republicans back to the majority in 2020, although that may be more bravado than reality as Trump will be at the top of the ticket next cycle.

McCarthy was nominated for the post by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, (R-Texas); Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Brian Mast (R-Fla.) also spoke in favor.

The California Republican will also have to deal with Jordan, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and the rest of the Freedom Caucus now that he’s minority leader.

POLITICO reported Tuesday night that Trump urged McCarthy to “make everybody happy” in regard to Jordan, who wants to be ranking member on the Judiciary Committee. However, Jordan is not popular with other House Republicans and may not be able to jump over more senior lawmakers for the Judiciary post.