Senate, House GOP Revise Leadership After Midterm Elections

(Bloomberg) -- Senate and House Republicans modestly revised their leadership team and Senate Democrats left theirs intact after private votes on Wednesday.

• House Democrats will pick their leaders after Thanksgiving.

House GOP Leaders

• Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California will become House minority leader after Republicans lost their majority in the Nov. 6 election. Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana will become minority whip.
• New to the leadership team will be Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who was chosen as House GOP conference chairwoman.

Senate GOP Leaders

• Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was returned to his job leading the GOP in the chamber while six-year term limits caused a shuffling among other top party officials.
• The current No. 2 Republican leader, John Cornyn of Texas, can’t keep that job after serving since 2012, and that caused a chain reaction that pulled other current leaders up one rung and left a place for a new female caucus vice chairman. Cornyn will become an adviser to McConnell.
• Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, will move into the No. 2 job, the vote-counting whip.

• 
  Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, will move into the conference chairmanship, a job that includes helping lead the Senate GOP communications effort.
• Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri will move from vice chairman of the conference into Barrasso’s old job, chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee.
• Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa prevailed over Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska in a race for the conference vice chairmanship. Her election marks the first time a woman has been in the Senate GOP leadership team since 2010.

Senate Democratic leaders

• Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York will return to his post as Senate minority leader.
• The senior positions below Schumer remain the same, including Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois remaining in the No. 2 job of the Democratic whip.
• Senator Patty Murray of Washington was re-elected assistant Democratic leader. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan remains chairwoman of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.

To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net;Anna Edgerton in Washington at aedgerton@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Laurie Asséo

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