Sen. Rick Scott had a plan. The Florida Republican would lead his party’s Senate campaign committee in a year that was likely to be good for the GOP, celebrate as Republicans racked up victories, and reap the rewards of a job well done. That plan hasn’t worked out especially well.
But as it turns out, Rep. Tom Emmer had a very similar plan. The Minnesota Republican would lead his party’s House campaign committee in a year that was likely to be good for the GOP, celebrate as Republicans racked up victories, and also reap the rewards of a job well done. Indeed, Emmer had remarkably high hopes: The Hill reported late last year that while the congressman said a majority wasn’t guaranteed, “he asserted that as many as 70 Democrats could lose their seats in a possible wave.”
Eleven months later, such rhetoric now appears absurd. It was against this backdrop that The Washington Post asked Emmer what other Republicans should take away from the House race results. He replied:
“They won a majority. That’s what we set out to do four years ago. It’s only happened three times now in the last 68 years. They should be extremely happy. They won the majority, and we get to be the check on the Biden administration for the next two years.”
Asked how many seats the GOP is likely to end up with, Emmer said, “We’ll be in the majority.” Asked about the possibility of Democrats somehow managing to get to 218 seats when all is said and done, Emmer once again responded, “We will be in the majority.”
There’s no great mystery as to why the Minnesotan is pushing this line: Emmer not only wants to avoid blame for Republicans’ underwhelming, far-worse-than-expected results, he also wants a promotion, hoping to become the next House majority whip if there’s a GOP majority. That would be the No. 3 leadership post in the Republican conference — behind only the speaker and the majority leader — and Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Drew Ferguson of Georgia are eying the same post.








