President Trump says he is staying out of the contest. Taking reporters’ questions at the White House ballroom construction site on Wednesday, he was asked about the race for House minority leader and answered: “We’ll stay out of it.”
He praised the outgoing speaker instead. “But the Speaker was fantastic. The people under him were fantastic. All good people,” he said — and when a reporter asked him directly whether he had asked Johnson to step down, he answered: “No, no, no.”
His neutrality leaves the choice entirely to House Republicans when they vote on November 10: Scalise the organizer, promising to win the majority back, or Jordan the oversight fighter, promising to restore voters’ faith that Republicans can deliver.
— Previously posted on Wednesday, November 4, 2026 —
The race to lead House Republicans in the minority is on. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana formally launched their bids on Wednesday, each in a letter asking their colleagues in the House Republican Conference for support, hours after Speaker Mike Johnson told his staff he will not run for minority leader.
Scalise, the current House majority leader and a former majority whip, pitched his record as an organizer and fundraiser, writing that his “number one goal” as leader “will be to win back the majority and I expect you to hold me accountable to that mission.” He warned that the “socialists are coming to Washington with a radical agenda” and “will stop at nothing to undo the progress we’ve made,” and argued the conference needs substantive changes in how it operates, including clear expectation-setting and accountability after a cycle marked by Republican infighting.
Jordan, who chairs the Judiciary Committee and also sits on Oversight, argued in a shorter letter that the minority’s job “cannot be merely to spotlight how radical this new Democrat party is” but must also “restore voters’ faith in our ability to deliver” on the party’s promises. “Direct communication with the American people will be our greatest tool, and I will be a relentless voice for our entire Conference,” he wrote. “I am battle-tested on the oversight front and I know the Democrats’ playbook. I know what it will take to lead our Conference in the minority, to stay unified, and to coordinate and calibrate our response to the Democrats’ tactics.”
House Republicans hold their leadership elections on November 10. The winner will lead the party’s resistance to the incoming Democratic majority — Hakeem Jeffries is expected to take the speaker’s gavel when the new House is sworn in on January 3 — and will front the effort to win the chamber back.
For Republican voters, the choice sets the terms of the next two years: Scalise the organizer, promising discipline and a machine for taking the majority back, or Jordan the oversight brawler, promising relentless investigations and direct communication over the heads of the media. Whoever wins decides how hard Republicans fight the Democratic agenda on taxes, spending and oversight — and how the party rebuilds toward 2028.
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