Congress faces leaders in flux, big to-do list post-election | NASCAR & Racing

Democrats performed better than expected, keeping narrow control of the Senate and pressing a long shot race for the House. But they, too, face leadership turmoil as Republicans pick up House seats toward majority control that would threaten Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s gavel.

“There are all kinds of ways to exert influence,” Pelosi said Sunday, deflecting questions about her future if Democrats lose control of the House. “Speaker has awesome power, but I will always have influence.”

It’s a changed place on Capitol Hill in the aftermath of the first election since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, with the Republican Party split over its ties to former President Donald Trump, Democrats eyeing generational leadership changes, and Biden with just weeks to accomplish goals with guaranteed Democratic control of Washington. Much of the action will be playing out behind closed doors in private caucus meetings.

Against this backdrop, McCarthy has tried to tamp down unrest as he asked his GOP colleagues for their support ahead of Tuesday’s closed-door leadership elections, which would put him in line to take the House speaker’s gavel from Pelosi, D-Calif., if Republicans flip majority control.

“I will be a listener every bit as much as a Speaker, striving to build consensus from the bottom-up rather than commanding the agenda from the top-down,” McCarthy, R-Calif., wrote in a letter to his GOP colleagues.

But McCarthy enters the speaker’s race a weakened leader, confronted by his party’s losses and demands from his restive right-flank, led by the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus and its ties with Trump. The former president backs McCarthy for speaker, but Freedom Caucus lawmakers are calling for elections to be postponed.

“I certainly don’t think we should have elections before we have everything counted and know what our numbers are,” said Freedom Caucus member Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.

Among the newly elected lawmakers, Republican Cory Mills, an Army combat veteran who won an open seat in Florida, said:…