Republicans, reeling from an election drubbing, will choose their leadership in Congress

WASHINGTON — After a blue tidal wave swept them from power, House and Senate Republicans will try to pick up the pieces Tuesday and select their leadership teams for the new Congress.House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has already heeded his party’s call for new blood, announcing he will forgo a bid for minority leader and step down from leadership.But other GOP leaders in both chambers are fighting to hang on to power in the wake of last week’s historic midterm drubbing.The House: Scalise vs.

JordanIn the House, Johnson’s decision has triggered a two-person race for minority leader.Johnson’s trusted top lieutenant and fellow Louisiana Republican, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, is fending off a challenge from Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, the founding chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.Congress returns with Democrats feeling ‘very empowered’ after midterm blue wave13:11Both are allies of President Donald Trump and ran unsuccessfully for speaker in 2023 after Kevin McCarthy was ousted.

The elections will be held behind closed doors and by secret ballot.Candidates will make their pitches to the conference beginning at 9 a.m.

ET, with a vote in the afternoon.Scalise made the pitch to colleagues that he can unify factions of House Republicans against the “socialists” coming to Washington, while Jordan, a former Oversight Committee chairman, argued that he’s best positioned to combat Democratic investigations of the Trump administration and its allies, telling colleagues he’s “battle-tested on the oversight front and I know the Democrats’ playbook.”Either will need a majority of the conference to vote for him to secure the job.Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., is seeking the whip job, the party’s top vote counter and the No.2 post in the minority.

But he faces an insurgent challenge from August Pfluger of Texas, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus of conservatives on Capitol H...