Leadership shuffle puts spotlight on Republican up and coming

The leadership shuffle set off by Speaker John A. Boehner’s impending resignation has made one thing clear in the House Republican Conference: There’s a younger generation of GOP lawmakers eager to take the reins.

Congress is an institution that has traditionally rewarded lawmakers for biding their time, waiting on turn for plum positions or assignments. It’s especially true in the Democratic Caucus, which generally adheres to a seniority system.

But the Republican Conference of late has been more of a meritocracy, with committee leaders subject to term limits and more willingness to allow lawmakers to leapfrog more senior members. There’s an appreciation for tenure and time of service, of course, but the conference also rewards members with fresh ideas and energy.

That’s in part the explanation for the rise of Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, 50, who is widely considered the favorite to succeed Boehner, 65, as the top Republican.

McCarthy announced his candidacy for the speakership Monday in a letter to fellow Republicans.

“We can’t ignore the differences that exist,” he said, “but we can and must heal the divisions in our conference with work, time and trust.”

The House’s No. 3 Republican, Majority Whip Steve Scalise, is 49, and one of the competitors for the majority leader slot, Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers is 46.

If McCarthy becomes speaker, he would be the youngest to hold the position in at least 20 years. (When Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., became speaker in 1995, he was 51.)

And depending on how elections shake out — if Scalise or McMorris Rodgers becomes majority leader and chief deputy whip Patrick T. McHenry, nearly 39, or Rep. Markwayne Mullin, 38, becomes whip — McCarthy could, like Boehner, be the oldest leader at the table.

The youth movement isn’t inevitable: McCarthy could end up being younger than the lawmakers in the ranks beneath him. Rep. Peter Roskam, 54, is eyeing the majority leader slot, as is Tom Price, whose 61st birthday is Oct. 8. Other potential whip candidates, like Reps. Pete Sessions and Dennis A. Ross, are, respectively, 60 and almost 56. And McCarthy’s competition in the race for speaker, Daniel Webster, R-Fla., is older than Boehner at 66.

Still, the Republican leadership team is likely to represent a much different generation than their counterparts in the Democratic Caucus, where Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is 75, Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer is 76 and Assistant Minority Leader James E. Clyburn is 75.

Republicans enjoy being the younger of the two parties, a reason for bragging rights as Democrats like to tout their inroads with women and minorities. McMorris Rodgers, who has made broadening the GOP tent a pillar of her time as head of the Republican Conference, often sprinkles her talking points with statistics she’s memorized about the relative youth of the GOP as compared to the Democrats, proof that Republicans are more in touch with millennials and younger Americans looking for jobs, paying for college and saving for the future.

“To look at the Republicans who are emerging and to compare those to the Democrats who are emerging shows a huge demographic shift, and it’s best reflected in the difference between party leadership,” Roskam said Monday.

In addition to being younger, House Republican-elected leaders have for some time now been less seasoned in the business of committees. None of the current members of House GOP leaders have held senior roles on congressional panels where they could familiarize themselves with the politics of policymaking. The exception, of course, is Boehner, who liked to remind people that he was once the top Republican on the committee on Education and the Workforce and had practice listening, delegating and ultimately making decisions.

It’s been a cause for griping among appropriators in particular, who have had an especially hard time getting their work accomplished given sequestration and partisanship and have felt their leaders, lacking committee experience, don’t have their backs (on the Democratic side of the aisle, Pelosi and Hoyer both used to serve on the appropriations committee).

Unless a surprising new candidate emerges in the next few days, the next leadership regime still won’t have an appropriator in the ranks. There could, however, be a committee chairman, or even two, in Budget Chairman Price and Rules Chairman Sessions, should they follow through with their leadership bids.

But a greener Republican leadership team could be perceived as something to celebrate, especially when many members want a leader who isn’t set in his or her ways as are some in the older guard, and when plenty of GOP voters are fatigued by “career politicians” who cater to the “establishment” and represent “business as usual.”

Even McCarthy stands out as a relative newcomer to the political scene, someone who climbed the ranks quickly and succeeded through hard work and energy, rather than simply by outlasting everybody else: He’s been on Capitol Hill only since 2007.

This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Leadership shuffle puts spotlight on Republican up and coming."