Jim Jordan beats Scalise 106-73 to lead House Republicans, and Thune keeps the Senate GOP

House Republicans on Tuesday elected Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio as their next leader, picking the House Judiciary Committee chairman over Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana. The vote was 106-73, according to NBC News, which cited two lawmakers in the room. The ballot was secret and held behind closed doors. CBS News and CNBC reported the same result.

Across the Capitol, Senate Republicans kept their leadership slate. CBS reported they unanimously elected Sen. John Thune of South Dakota as minority leader, after some GOP senators had called for a delay to discuss the midterm results. NBC said a small group of conservatives had pushed to postpone the election.

What Jordan said

"Over the next two years, House Republicans will fight for American families," Jordan told reporters after the vote. "When Democrats offer more government, we'll offer more freedom." He took no questions, CBS reported. In his pitch to colleagues he wrote that he is "battle-tested on the oversight front" and knows "the Democrats' playbook," NBC said, arguing that his past chairmanship of the Oversight Committee prepares him to respond to the investigations Democrats have promised into the administration.

Why the margin matters

Jordan won by 33 votes. NBC read the result as a request for a clean break from the political operation around outgoing Speaker Mike Johnson, who is close to both men and announced the day after Election Day that he would not seek the minority leader job. Scalise had argued he could best unify the party's factions. NBC also noted that Jordan lost a bid for minority leader in 2018, 159-43, to Kevin McCarthy, and that both he and Scalise failed to win the speakership in 2023 before Johnson emerged as a compromise.

In other House races, NBC reported that Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota fended off a challenge from Rep. August Pfluger of Texas to keep the whip job, the No. 2 post in the minority.

The calendar and the money angle

Neither leader takes the new role until the next Congress, so the current Republican majority still has work to do. Thune said after his re-election that the Senate will "finish this legislative session strong," CBS reported, naming judicial and executive nominees and government funding as priorities, and said the conference will extend its calendar to get there. For businesses and traders, that means the funding deadline and any year-end tax or trade measures are decided by this lame-duck Congress, with Democrats set to take the House in January. NBC put the incoming Democratic majority at roughly 260 seats, the largest in 35 years.

Earlier coverage: Speaker Johnson steps aside, setting up the Scalise vs. Jordan vote and the House vote to send the Hegseth impeachment to committee, which happened the same day.

Sources: NBC News, CBS News, CNBC. The vote tally comes from lawmakers who spoke anonymously because the ballot was secret. This is news reporting, not investment advice.