The new Congress · Across Pennsylvania Avenue: the leaders of Congress
House Majority Whip
The House Republican vote-counter since 2023, re-elected whip on November 10, 2026, by 103 to 76; he becomes the No. 2 House Republican, as minority whip, when the new Congress convenes in January.
Thomas Earl Emmer Jr. was born in South Bend, Indiana, on March 3, 1961, and grew up in Minnesota, where he attended Saint Thomas Academy. 1 2 He studied at Boston College and then at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, graduating in 1984 with a degree in political science, and earned a law degree from William Mitchell College of Law in 1988. 1 2 He practiced law, representing cities and counties, and later opened his own firm. 1 2 He and his wife, Jacquie, have seven children and live in Delano, Minnesota. 2
Emmer served on the city councils of Independence and Delano before winning a seat in the Minnesota House in 2004, where he served three terms. 1 2 He was the Republican nominee for governor in 2010 and lost to Democrat Mark Dayton by less than half a percentage point, conceding on December 8, 2010, after a recount. 1 He then co-hosted a morning talk radio show in Minneapolis. 1 In 2014 he won the congressional seat that Michele Bachmann was leaving, and he took office on January 3, 2015. 1 2
In Washington, Emmer chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party's House campaign arm, for the 2020 and 2022 elections. 1 2 After Republicans won the House in 2022 he was elected majority whip, defeating Jim Banks 115 to 106 on a second ballot, and took the post on January 3, 2023. 1 On October 24, 2023, House Republicans nominated him for Speaker, but he withdrew the same day in the face of opposition from hard-line members and Donald Trump. 1 He sits on the Financial Services Committee and is a leading congressional advocate for the cryptocurrency industry. 2 5
As whip in 2025, Emmer was responsible for rounding up Republican votes for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed the House 215 to 214 in May and 218 to 214 in July. 1 7 The Deseret News notes that his tenure has also included several failed procedural votes, which he has said are outside his control, and that he has grown closer to Trump over the past two years. 4 In June 2026 he drew criticism from Minnesota Democrats for remarks about Somali immigrants. 6
Republicans lost the House on November 3, 2026, with Democrats flipping more than 40 seats. 9 On November 10 the Republicans who will serve in the next Congress re-elected Emmer as whip over August Pfluger of Texas, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, by 103 to 76. 3 5 Because Jim Jordan won the top job, Emmer moves up from third-ranking to second-ranking House Republican, with the title of minority whip, when the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2027. 3 5
The acts and events that have defined the post so far, oldest first.
Launched the bipartisan Congressional Crypto Caucus with Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres to build support for digital-asset legislation. 5
The House gave the bill final approval, 218 to 214; President Trump signed it on July 4. 7
Said at a Faith and Freedom Coalition town hall on Capitol Hill that Somali immigrants who do not assimilate should be sent back to where they came from. 6
Republicans lost their House majority in the midterm elections. 9
What critics, courts or investigators have said, and the answer given. An allegation is not a finding.
After Emmer's town hall remarks about Somali immigrants, Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat born in Somalia, said she had assimilated all the way to Congress and was still being told to go back, and Rep. Angie Craig called the comments racist. CBS noted that Emmer had praised the Somali community's assimilation in 2016, and that earlier in 2026 he called for deporting Somali Americans involved in the Feeding Our Future fraud case, including stripping citizenship from naturalized citizens. 6
Their side: The CBS report included no response from Emmer or his office; at the event he said he was no longer willing to be cautious about being called a racist or an Islamophobe. 6
Emmer signed the House Republican friend-of-the-court brief supporting Texas v. Pennsylvania, the lawsuit that sought to set aside the 2020 presidential results in four states, and called some state election practices questionable without giving specifics. 1
Their side: Emmer voted in January 2021 to certify the Electoral College results. 1
As a state legislator, Emmer sponsored a bill to delay driver's license revocations in drunk-driving cases until after conviction; critics pointed to his own record, a drunk-driving-related ticket at age 20 and a 1991 guilty plea to careless driving in a case where drunk-driving charges were dropped. 1
Their side: Emmer said his own history had nothing to do with the bill. 1
Quotes from our stories, each matched word for word against its source before it ran.
“We expanded the map when we should have kept it narrow.”
Marc Short, who worked in Trump's first White House, says the GOP is now triaging races. Republican groups are moving money from offense to defense days before the Nov. 3 midterms.
File checked Nov. 13, 2026. Something wrong or out of date? Tell the desk.
