MINORITY REPORT: Sen. John Thune (S.D.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio) will hold the minority leader positions in the incoming Congress after prevailing in caucus elections on Tuesday.
Thune was reelected to be the GOP's Senate leader after a daylong battle and delays in votes Tuesday.
The Republican conference meeting Tuesday was only supposed to last a few hours but turned into an all-day event after Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and other conservatives pressured Thune to commit to bring a budget reconciliation package to the Senate floor during the lame-duck session.
After several hours, no Republican senator challenged Thune for the position, ultimately ending the hours-long standoff.
"I appreciated the opportunity to have an open, honest conversation with my colleagues today, and I am honored to have their continued trust and support to lead the Senate Republican Conference in the 120th Congress," Thune wrote in a statement.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan (R) was voted to be the new House minority leader for the Republican Party in a 106-73 vote over Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.).
Jordan has spent nearly two decades in the House and is a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus — the most conservative bloc in the House.
Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer (R) will be the next minority whip, defeating fellow GOP Rep. August Pfluger (Texas) for the position. Emmer had served as the No. 3 Republican in the majority.
▪ The Hill: Scott, Hawley decline to commit to backing Thune for leader
TIME'S UP?: Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said during a press conference Tuesday afternoon that they would not back Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to hold the Senate majority leader position.
Schumer, the current Senate minority leader, has received opposition from both progressive and centrist Democrats.
“We need leadership that’s going to govern for the entirety of the caucus, for folks from blue states, purple states and red states,” Slotkin said Tuesday.
Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) has been floated as a possible candidate to challenge Schumer for the position but has made it known that he is only in "listening mode" at this time. Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.), among a handful of new faces who committed during their campaigns to oppose Schumer, said he'd support Van Hollen.
Schumer told reporters on Tuesday he's confident he'll ultimately win. Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) noted at a separate press conference that they will continue to back the New York lawmaker.
“It’s time for us to unify, we are going to work together as a caucus and put a plan together about how to move forward for what the country wants us to do, and I think, you know, we have the person who’s going to lead us there,” Gallego said.
▪ The Hill: Schumer says Trump support of Nvidia CEO a ‘dereliction of duty’
ALASKA GAP WIDENS: Former Rep Mary Peltola (D) expanded her lead over Sen. Dan Sullivan after the latest batch of ballots was counted in Alaska overnight.
Peltola's lead increased from 2,517 to 4,250 votes. Significantly, that also puts her total ahead of the combined vote share for Sullivan and Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a former schoolteacher that her campaign allegedly recruited into the race. The other Sullivan now has 4,027 votes.
But Peltola, leading 49 percent ot 47.2 percent, is still short of the 50 percent of votes needed to avoid a second round of ranked-choice voting.
Alaska’s vote count is expected to continue for several more days as state election officials transport ballots across the state’s remote regions. Ballots can arrive up to 15 days after the election so long as they are postmarked by Election Day.
▪ The Hill: Cindy Hyde-Smith ‘feeling very optimistic’ despite trailing in vote count.
PRICE CHECK: Consumer prices rose more than economists expected last month, upping the chances of an interest rate hike when the Federal Reserve meets next month.
The consumer price index (CPI) report released yesterday showed prices rose 0.4 percent on a monthly basis in October, higher than the 0.3 percent that economists polled by FactSet predicted.
Economists at the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, as well as at The New York Times, calculated an annual inflation rate of roughly 4 percent in October. The previous month, the official annual inflation rate was 3.7 percent.
Federal Reserve board of governors member Christopher Waller, in remarks yesterday, opened the door to a half-point rate hike next month, though those prospects remain unlikely. As of late Tuesday, CME FedWatch shows a 90.8 percent chance of a quarter-point rate hike at the Dec. 9 meeting.
▪ The Hill: Gretchen Whitmer presses Trump on tariffs, grocery reimbursements.
▪ The Hill: Credit card debt mounts amid Democrats’ push to cap interest rates.
OUR EYES ONLY: A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration will have limited access to journalists’ private chat logs, specifically on the platform LinkedIn.
The three-judge panel unanimously voted on the ruling, saying it violates the First Amendment and could hinder the way politics is reported.
Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, who wrote the ruling, said the Department of Justice’s attempt to access journalists’ private messages on the networking site also has the potential to expose anonymous sources.
The Trump administration had requested for LinkedIn to provide them 18 months' worth of confidential messages from specific reporters who used the platform.
▪ The Hill: Voice of America head was illegally fired by Kari Lake, court says.
