Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer Elected to New Senate Leadership Terms
The latest on congressional leadership elections (all times local):
10:40 a.m.
Senate Democrats are keeping their team headed by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York even though one of the two new Democratic senators-elect, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, has said she wouldn’t vote for him.
Democrats re-elected their party leadership by acclamation during a closed-door meeting Wednesday.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois was re-elected as minority whip, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state won a new term as assistant leader. Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan was re-elected as Democratic policy committee chair.
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10:35 a.m.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been elected to another term as GOP leader.
He won a new term by acclamation Wednesday.
The rest of the GOP lineup 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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10:30 a.m.
Rick Scott is Florida’s Republican governor, not a senator-elect. Yet there he was at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s left shoulder when the Kentucky Republican welcomed GOP senators who will take their seats in January when the new Congress is sworn in.
Scott holds the narrowest of leads over Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, and a recount is ongoing.
During a brief photo-op in McConnell’s Capitol office on Wednesday, Scott did not reply to a question about whether he contends there was fraud in the Florida election.
President Donald Trump and Scott have accused elections supervisors in two Florida Democratic counties of fraud. State law enforcement and elections officials have said no formal fraud complaints have been filed.
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9:55 a.m.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi 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 said, “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.
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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 Obamacare.
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.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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