Steve Scalise may try for House majority leader’s post

Dennis Ross, R-Fla., and Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., who have announced they’re running for majority whip, leadership’s No. 3 position.

“We need a new leadership team that is committed to conservative principles, but more than that we must recognize the need for a culture change within our conference”, he wrote. “I am grateful for his leadership and proud to call him a friend”, McMorris Rodgers said.

“I am eternally grateful for the steady, principled leadership Speaker Boehner has provided the House, and for the friendship and mentorship he’s given me”.

Roskam is also mulling a challenge to Scalise and McMorris Rodgers for majority leader.

The Seattle Times reports McMorris Rodgers said Monday she’ll seek to remain in the No. 4 position in the House GOP, as chair of the House Republican Conference.

On Sunday, a leader of the Freedom Caucus, which has a few of the most conservative Republicans in the House who have been critical of Boehner, said that group hasn’t decided whom it will support for speaker, or any other positions that might open up.

Scalise claimed he had the votes, but the amendment ultimately failed as Price had predicted and Scalise’s unusual move to personally confirm votes brought tension with the committee’s conservative members.

Last year, Scalise defeated Reps.

Though he is chairman of the Budget Committee, Price does not hold a spot in elected leadership.

In brief comments to Orlando’s News 96.5 radio station, 10th District Republican Congressman Daniel Webster said the House’s agenda should be driven by rank-and-file, not just the leadership.

Rep. Scalise since then has dealt with criticism after it was revealed that he spoke to members of a white supremacist group linked to David Duke in 2002 when he was a legislator. Scalise has voted with Boehner and McCarthy on issues that have split the Republican majority, such as the approval of a homeland security funding bill in the spring that did not defund Democratic President Barack Obama’s executive orders waiving deportation for certain undocumented immigrants – a measure that passed because most Democrats joined a minority of Republican members in support of it.

“But if there’s going to be a palace coup, perhaps all bets are off, ” he said, referring to opposition from Freedom Caucus members to candidates aligned with Boehner. “Who controls the floor?’ And there are a number of us who are very happy with Kevin McCarthy as majority leader right now”.

The congresswoman was slipped a note before a morning meeting with Boehner to give her a heads-up about what he was about to announce. “I would suggest that conservative voices were rarely heeded, and now it seems we have a place at the table”, Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said last fall.