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IN THIS EDITION

Inside the room: Senate GOP to choose a new leader for the first time in 18 years

After keeping the majority, Johnson and House GOP leaders keep their jobs

The Vault: The lawmakers eyeing seats on tax committees

A conversation on national security

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Inside the room: Senate GOP to choose a new leader for the first time in 18 years

Happy Wednesday morning.

Senate Republicans are about to do something they haven’t done in 18 years: pick a new leader.

Starting at 9:30 a.m., the GOP Conference will meet privately in the Old Senate Chamber to choose a successor to Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history.

The stakes are tremendously high for Senate Minority Whip John Thune, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). With President-elect Donald Trump pushing GOP lawmakers to hit the ground running in January, the new Senate majority leader will be in the middle of just about everything during the 119th Congress.

As the current No. 2 Senate Republican, Thune is seen as the frontrunner and the more dynamic candidate. Cornyn preceded Thune as whip and is up for reelection in 2026, and he’s touted his impressive campaign war chest and legislative dealmaking. Scott just won reelection and is carrying the mantle of the conference’s most conservative members. There’s also an intense pro-Scott online pressure campaign from MAGA media figures.

All three have pledged their loyalty to Trump while arguing they’re the best choice to turn his agenda into reality.

Here’s what we know about who’s doing nominating speeches for the candidates:

— Thune: Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.).

— Scott: Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.).

— Cornyn: Cornyn’s office declined to comment.

— Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.): Sen.-elect Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) are formally nominating Barrasso, who’s running unopposed for the majority whip job. Banks is also speaking on behalf of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in his bid to be the No. 3 Senate Republican against Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

Zooming out: Regardless of who wins, the Senate could look and act differently next year — due in large part to Scott and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) banging the drum for years about the need for a complete overhaul of the leadership structure.

Both Thune and Cornyn, close McConnell allies, have embraced many of the same reforms that Scott has proposed, although to a somewhat lesser degree.

“I give Rick Scott lots of credit for lots of things around here,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who supports Thune. “Quite honestly, I think everybody’s sympathetic to Rick’s arguments, I really do. He is forcing the issue.”

While many Senate Republicans see Thune and Cornyn as interchangeable, there are key differences between the two. Cornyn has backed term limits for the GOP leader job, while Thune believes that should be a conference-wide decision. They also have different styles, but both have been working for years to develop the relationships necessary to win a leadership race.

Scott’s supporters say it’s long past time for GOP leaders to be more attentive to the concerns of rank-and-file senators. That means taking input from the entire conference before reaching a decision, not bringing up last-minute votes or pushing massive appropriations packages, and — perhaps most importantly — facilitating an open amendment process.

Yet in fairness to McConnell, today’s dysfunctional Senate reflects the growing partisanship of the country. Compromise is a dirty word. McConnell and other party leaders say they’ve been forced to use heavy-handed tactics because some senators are more interested in scoring points on social media than governing.

At a candidate forum Tuesday night, Republicans aired their grievances about the current state of the Senate. They asked pointed questions of the candidates on everything from policy matters to campaign spending. This hasn’t been the case for past leadership elections.

“I mean, McConnell had this stuff just all cooked where you have the election, come back in here, bam, you vote right away,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a Scott backer and longtime McConnell antagonist, said after the forum.

Challenges: The leadership election isn’t a magical fix. There are still deep disagreements among senators over the amount of power party leaders should wield. And whoever wins will find it extremely difficult to follow through on some of their commitments — even the more modest ones.

Take Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), for example. Tillis has long backed McConnell’s view that delegating too much power to the rank-and-file could make the Senate even more dysfunctional. As a result, some senators believe it will be difficult for whoever becomes majority leader — including Thune or Cornyn, whose reform proposals are more modest — to put their commitments into practice.

“The leaders do their very best to get people involved,” Tillis said. “[But] if we’re intellectually honest with ourselves, a lot of the reasons why things collapse is we can’t get agreement from our own side.”

More from Tillis:

Yet the biggest challenge for whoever wins the leadership race will be dealing with Trump, who has a penchant for fueling chaos and is already signaling his intent to send up controversial nominees for top posts.

News: Republicans from the House and Senate Budget Committees met on Tuesday to talk about plans for a reconciliation package. The GOP is planning to pass a major tax bill in the first 100 days of the new Trump presidency. The conversation was largely a big-picture discussion about what Republicans are looking at for reconciliation, according to a source with knowledge of the meeting.

Also: Has one Senate Republican issued a statement backing Trump’s pick of Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary? Buckle up for a difficult confirmation process.

— Andrew Desiderio, John Bresnahan, Max Cohen and Laura Weiss

The Daily Punch 🥊 With new episodes every weekday morning, The Daily Punch brings you inside Capitol Hill, the White House and Washington all in less than 15 minutes. Listen to today’s episode now.

HOUSE GOP LEADERSHIP

After keeping the majority, Johnson and House GOP leaders keep their jobs

In politics — like sports — winning is everything.

The House Republican leadership, the subject of so much disdain over the last two years, will be reelected today without any meaningful opposition after the party bucked the odds and held onto its razor-thin majority. And the House Republican Conference is set to reject a raft of proposed revisions to their internal rules.

The House Freedom Caucus, which has agitated against every speaker for the last decade, couldn’t even muster up a sacrificial candidate to run against Speaker Mike Johnson. Instead, they will block Johnson from being elected by voice vote. This isn’t much of a defeat for the Louisiana Republican.

This doesn’t mean that Johnson won’t struggle on the House floor come January when the new Congress begins and the entire House will need to vote on a rules package to govern how the chamber operates.

The House Freedom Caucus, which huddled Tuesday night to talk about their strategy, is still actively weighing how to use their leverage. One of the things that’s been discussed is lobbying Johnson to add an HFC member to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, according to a source familiar with the matter. Given the stakes of tax reform, this would be a tremendous risk for Johnson — especially since the HFC has completely upended the Rules Committee.

They’re also insisting that the motion to vacate remain intact as it’s currently structured. The HFC tried to oust Johnson last year following a Ukraine aid vote only to see Democrats come to his rescue.

But Johnson is betting that support from President-elect Donald Trump, who’s visiting the conference today, will help him stay in the speakership without much sweat.

What else to expect: Rep. John James (R-Mich.), a rising GOP star from a battleground district, will give Johnson’s nominating speech, we’re told. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) will give seconding speeches.

The only competitive contest in the upper ranks of leadership is the two-way race between Reps. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) and Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) for House GOP conference chair. McClain is the favorite.

Up next: After the leadership is elected today, the House Republican Conference will consider a number of changes to the party’s rules, most of which will likely be defeated. The rule changes come largely from hardline conservatives, who want to codify unwritten rules like every bill considered on the floor needs support from the “majority of the majority” party. The proposed changes also seek to cut away at the power of the leadership.

But there are a number of amendments that would punish dissenters. For example, New York Rep. Nick LaLota has an amendment that would strip committee assignments from lawmakers who vote against procedural motions. Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin has an amendment that would strip committee assignments from any lawmaker who is involved with overthrowing a GOP speaker. Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan, who is seeking the House Financial Services Committee gavel, has his own proposal to punish lawmakers who vote against the GOP speaker nominee on the floor.

In effect, hardline conservatives are targeting the middle of the conference. And the middle of the conference is targeting the hardliners right back. This all but guarantees no significant change in the party’s rules. Still, conservatives want a commitment from Johnson that he’ll oppose any efforts to punish dissenters.

Steering drama: Johnson’s leadership has released a new map with the new steering regions. Remember, the steering committee is one of the power centers of the House Republican Conference. It selects committee chairs and assignments.

The map lumped in two current steering members in region six — House Armed Service Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.). This will cause big drama over the next few days.

— Jake Sherman, Mica Soellner and Melanie Zanona

PUNCHBOWL NEWS EVENTS

A conversation on national security

On Tuesday night, we hosted “A Conversation on National Security,” an event featuring networking, light bites and a fireside chat about national security and the importance of supporting service members and veterans. During the event, Punchbowl News CEO Anna Palmer sat down for a conversation with RTX’s senior vice president of global government relations Jeff Shockey. Thank you to RTX for partnering with us on this event.

Joining us: Staffers and aides, including Zach Barnett from Sen. Roger Wicker’s (R-Miss.) office; Adam Yost from Sen. Mazie Hirono’s (D-Hawaii) office; Max Richards from Sen. Eric Schmitt’s (R-Mo.) office; Eric Meeder from Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s (D-Conn.) office; Travis Clay from Rep. Ronny Jackson’s (R-Texas) office; Jack Beyrer of the Senate Committee on Armed Services; Tony Johnson of the Truman National Security Project; Julia Mathis and Ariel De Jesus of The American Legion; and Charles Randaxhe of the Embassy of Belgium.

… AND THERE’S MORE

Rep.-elect Brandon Gill (R-Texas) is running for freshman class president.

Gill said in his letter to colleagues that he would help implement President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda and cited his ties to the conservative media world.

“I want my experience and relationships in the conservative media ecosystem to be a resource for all of you,” Gill wrote.

Gill also said he would host quarterly social programs for members as well as events featuring conservative media figures. Gill is the son-in-law of prominent conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza.

Gill has also contributed money to several members, as we previously reported. Since October, Gill has given over $100,000 in new contributions to freshmen members, GOP challengers and incumbents. He’s contributed a total of over $170,000 to candidates this cycle.

The 30-year-old will be one of the youngest Republicans in Congress when he is sworn in.

— Mica Soellner

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