The Latest: McConnell wins another term as GOP leader
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on congressional Republicans’ leadership elections (all times local):
10:35 a.m.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been elected to another term as GOP leader.
He won a new term by acclimation Wednesday.
The rest of the GOP line-up below the Kentucky Republican is expected to shuffle slightly. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the GOP whip, is being forced out by term limits. That allows Sen. John Thune of South Dakota to move up to the No. 2 spot. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming and Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri are expected to take over the third- and fourth-ranking spots.
Republicans are poised to elect their first woman to leadership in almost a decade. Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer is running for vice chair of the conference. She faces GOP Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa.
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9:55 a.m.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (puh-LOH’-see) is challenging the Democrats who are fighting to stop her from becoming speaker to put forward an alternative.
Asked about the opposition Wednesday, Pelosi noted the lack of a challenger. The California Democrat says, “Come on in. The water’s warm.”
The Democrats seeking to stop Pelosi’s rise claim they have the votes to block her. Rep. Kurt Schrader of Oregon has said Pelosi “doesn’t have the votes” to become speaker again, in part because of the newly elected members who have promised to oppose her.
House Democrats will not hold their leadership elections until after Thanksgiving. The full House will elect a new speaker in January, after the new Democratic majority is sworn into office.
Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and California Rep. Kevin McCarthy are running for House minority leader.
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7:50 a.m.
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio says the GOP lost its House majority in the midterm election because it didn’t deliver on promises to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, fund President Donald Trump’s wall and replace the Obama health care law.
Jordan, a founder of the conservative Freedom Caucus, is running for House minority leader in the new Congress against California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the current majority leader and pick of the GOP establishment.
Jordan told Fox’s “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday that if he is elected to the leadership job, he will work on “doing what we told the American people we were gonna do.”
Jordan says Republicans must be prepared to fight investigations of Trump and his administration that House Democrats plan when they have the majority in January.
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12:05 a.m.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is running to take over next year’s shrunken caucus in closed-door elections that will set the tone for the new Congress.
The race for minority leader is McCarthy’s to lose Wednesday. But the California Republican, who is an ally of President Donald Trump, must fend off a challenge from conservative Jim Jordan of Ohio. Jordan is a leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
They two encountered questions and finger-pointing during a private meeting with lawmakers Tuesday night as the GOP sorted through the midterm defeat that put Democrats in the majority next year.
Elections Wednesday will also determine party leadership in the Senate.
Voting for the biggest race, Nancy Pelosi’s bid to return as the Democrats’ nominee for speaker, is later this month.
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