Scalise loses his bid to be House Minority Leader once Democrats take control

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - House Majority Leader Steve Scalise lost his bid to remain in House leadership once the Democrats take control of Congress in January.

Scalise ran for the House Minority Leader position on Tuesday (Nov. 10) but lost to his fellow Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio in a closed-door vote taken by Republican House members. The vote was 106 to 73.

Only a week ago, Scalise was easily reelected to represent Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District which includes parts of Jefferson Parish, New Orleans and the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

“I will lead the charge to make sure we get back into the majority,” Scalise said in addressing his supports.

Scalise was elected to Congress in 2008, and besides being elected House Majority Leader, he also served as GOP House Whip.

Dillard University political analyst Robert Collins worked on the Capitol Hill for years and reacted to Scalise losing his quest to be the top Republican in the House under Democratic control.

“This is not a surprise, because as we’ve seen historically, whenever one party loses a lot of seats in the House, the members of that party generally start looking for new leadership, and even though Steve Scalise was not Speaker of the House, he was majority leader, so he was in leadership,” Collins said.

Republicans in Congress suffered big losses in both the House and the Senate on Nov. 3.

“Basically, the Republican members are looking for new leadership. We’re saying, ‘Okay, we just got hit really hard in the last election, we need a fresh start. We need somebody totally new. We’re not going to elevate our old Majority Leader up to the position of being leader of the Republican Caucus, basically now what we need is fresh leadership,’” Collins.

Not only did Scalise not win against Jordan, House Speaker Mike Johnson also of Louisiana will leave that position in early January and relinquish his gavel to a Democratic House Speaker.

Congratulations to @Jim_Jordan, @GOPMajorityWhip, @RepLisaMcClain, @RepBrianJack, @RepBlakeMoore, @repmarkalford, and @jayobernolte on their election to Republican Leadership for the 120th Congress.

I look forward to supporting my
colleagues and continuing to fight for the…

— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) November 10, 2026

“We lose Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House. We lose Steve Scalise as majority leader. They’re both going to become back-benchers now, and of course, not just back-benchers, but back-benchers in the minority,” said Collins.

And Collins said with Louisiana’s congressional delegation being so heavily Republican, Louisiana will be at a disadvantage when Democrats take control on Capitol Hill.

“It’s especially problematic for the state of Louisiana, because right now, it appears that there might be only one Democratic member in the La. delegation,” Collins said.

“Any majority requests are going to have to go through Congressman Troy Carter, and of course, Congressman Carter’s first responsibility is going to be taking care of district and not taking care of the state as a whole,” he said.

FOX 8 requested an interview with Scalise for this story, but did not hear back about that request. However, his staff did send a tweet he posted congratulating Jordan.

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