Steve Scalise

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, talks with reporters after a House GOP leadership candidate forum and before elections for the 120th Congress, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

WASHINGTON – After losing the race to lead the GOP House next year, Majority Leader Steve Scalise told Fox News he remains undecided about continuing to serve in the House from the back bench.

“There’s no decision on what’s next,” Scalise said Wednesday in a brief hallway interview. “I’ve got to get through these next few weeks, and then we have a lot of decisions to make about what's life going to look like in the minority. But I sure still have a great passion for this country.”

Scalise’s office would not expand on those comments Thursday morning.

Scalise was easily reelected last week to his seat representing southeast Louisiana, but he lost his bid Tuesday to lead the lead House Republicans when they assume the minority in January.

Conservative firebrand Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican who co-founded the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, won the election on a closed-door vote of 106 to 73.

Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Benton, the current House speaker, announced after devastating Republican losses in last week’s midterm elections that he would not stand for leadership in the 120th Congress.

In the recent past, Republican leaders who oversaw the loss of a majority stepped down and eventually quit the House altogether. Johnson similarly hasn’t announced whether he’ll continue as a regular House member when his next term begins January 3.

In the meantime, both Johnson and Scalise are in charge until next month.

“There’s still a lot to do,” Scalise said. “I’ve got a lot more gas in the tank.”

Scalise has been in House Republican leadership since 2014 as the GOP whip in both majority and minority Houses. In 2023, Scalise ran to replace Kevin McCarthy, R-California, as House speaker but came up short. Jordan then tried his hand and failed. After three weeks of disarray, Scalise endorsed elevating Johnson from the back bench to speaker in October 2023. He was then elected House Majority Leader, which is the second highest ranking position after the speaker.

If Scalise were to resign from the House, it would trigger a special election that would likely set off a scramble among potential successors. Open Congressional seats often draw crowded fields of competitors — nine candidates entered the Monroe-area 5th Congressional District after U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow left it to run for U.S. Senate, and 10 candidates piled into the race for the Baton Rouge-area 6th Congressional District that Rep. Cleo Fields is leaving after redistricting.

Scalise’s 1st District includes a handful of precincts in uptown New Orleans, but it mostly covers the heavily GOP suburbs of Jefferson and southeast parishes, along with the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

Email Mark Ballard at [email protected].