Postelection power struggle brewing

It’s Friday. At least the weekend always has bipartisan support.

Programming note : Hello! We are Colin Meyn and Steff Danielle Thomas filling in for Cate. Please send your tips, comments and story ideas to cmeyn@thehill.com or sthomas@thehill.com .

The Associated Press | Jose Luis Magana, Mariam Zuhaib, J. Scott Applewhite and Jae C. Hong

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is the only party leader in Congress who isn’t facing opposition — or at least reservations — on their path to a leadership position.

DropSite is keeping a scorecard on where progressive lawmakers are lining up on Jeffries. It seems all but inevitable that he will be America’s first Black Speaker of the House, taking charge of a historic majority.

Not so in the races for House minority leader and Senate minority leader.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) seems on track to return to leading the majority, though he won’t be getting a unanimous vote. Incoming senators including Abdul El-Sayed (Mich.), Juliana Stratton (Ill.) and Adam Hamilton (Kan.) pledged to cast their vote for a new face atop the caucus.

It’s still unclear who might get their votes. El-Sayed said this week he’d support Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) for the role. Van Hollen’s office put out a statement Thursday saying he’s not interested.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is firmly in pole position after announcing his intention to remain GOP leader in the minority. In some of the biggest disappointments for Senate Republicans — including Georgia, Texas, South Carolina and North Carolina — President Trump hand-selected the GOP candidates, pushing out popular senators in two of those states.

That may help Thune argue he’s still the right man for the job of preparing for 2028.

No one has announced a run against him — yet.

Trump adviser Alex Bruesewitz publicly called on Senate Republicans to look beyond Thune, accusing the party of “rewarding failure” after sweeping midterm losses.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is out , as usually happens to a Speaker who loses the chamber. Running to replace him are House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — and maybe more.

The Hill’s Sudiksha Kochi has all the deets and drama here .

There’s competition for other House GOP leadership roles, too.

Republican Study Committee Chair August Pfluger (R-Texas) is running against House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.). And GOP Reps. Erin Houchin (Ind.) and Greg Steube (Fla.) both intend to oppose House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain (Mich.).

Wall Street celebrated Tuesday’s election results with a major rally Wednesday. But by Thursday, the party was over.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,800 points , while the S&P 500 dropped 4.4 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite sank 5.5 percent. The sell-off wiped out Wednesday’s gains as investors grew nervous about the future of artificial intelligence and data center projects following Democrats’ midterm victories.

It marks another headache for Trump, who has repeatedly touted stock market gains as proof of his economic success.

The president cast blame on Democrats for the turmoil:

“Such a sad thing to watch! It took so much work to get us to a level that no one has ever seen before, and then this,” he wrote on Truth Social . “Remember, it wasn’t Republicans, it was Dumocrats.”

The job market still has some gas in the tank.

Employers added 165,000 jobs in October, nearly tripling economists’ expectations of 59,000. The unemployment rate also ticked down to 4.1 percent, according to data released Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The agency also revised its August and September hiring numbers upward, giving the economic outlook another boost.

But don’t break out the champagne just yet. Wages grew 3.1 percent over the past year, trailing September’s 3.7 percent inflation rate.

In other words, Americans may be finding work, but their paychecks may not be stretching quite as far.

New York Federal Reserve President John Williams warned this week that inflation remains too high.

Annual inflation hit 3.7 percent in September, marking the seventh straight month above 3 percent. And with another interest rate hike potentially on the table in December, the nation’s central bank faces some tough decisions ahead.

➤ CAMPAIGN PROMISES TO CONGRESSIONAL PRESSURE:

Democrats rode frustration over soaring diesel and beef prices to victories in farm-heavy states on Tuesday.

Now comes the hard part: delivering relief to the farmers who helped put them in power.

From the Iran war to Trump’s tariffs, the incoming majority faces some tough choices — and a president who can veto its proposals.

👓 Insiders can read more from The Hill’s Max Rego.

Explore 2026 election results, voting trends and historical comparisons with Decision Desk HQ, available through The Hill Insider Premium.

A federal judge has thrown a wrench into Trump’s plans to build a triumphal arch between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial, putting the brakes on the construction project — at least for two weeks.

The Thursday ruling from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan came not long after the National Capital Planning Commission approved the proposal , following a contentious public meeting that was briefly disrupted by technology issues.

The arch has faced legal challenges and fierce opposition from critics — including officials in Virginia and Washington, D.C. — who argue the project threatens nearby historic landmarks

Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) celebrated the ruling , calling the proposed arch a monument to Trump’s “own ego” and vowing to work with incoming Democratic majorities in Congress to stop it permanently.

Meanwhile: The president has another proposal . He wants to designate the Oval Office and Cabinet Room as national monuments, potentially limiting future presidents’ ability to renovate them — even as he continues his own White House makeover with the ongoing ballroom project and recently upgraded helipad .

🪖 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ’s future at the Pentagon is looking increasingly uncertain as some within the Trump administration blame him for the Iran war and the GOP’s midterm defeats. The president is reportedly asking allies about the Defense chief’s standing, though he continues to defend him publicly.

⚖️ Jason Reding Quiñones , the top federal prosecutor in South Florida, and John Eisenberg , assistant attorney general for the national security division, resigned Friday , marking more high-profile departures from the Justice Department. Their exits come a day after Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon stepped down .

🗳️ How did Generation Z help swing the midterms to the left? Young voters shifted sharply away from Trump after his gains with the demographic in 2024, with roughly two-thirds backing Democratic candidates in Tuesday’s elections. Read more in The Feed .

🔎 Impeachment talk is already brewing on Capitol Hill, with two House Democrats floating the idea of ousting Attorney General Todd Blanche . Meanwhile, Scalise is urging Republicans to prepare for an expected wave of Democratic investigations.

🚨The National Guard is expanding its footprint in D.C., with patrol boats, military vehicles and up to 60 police cars. Hegseth approved the move, as roughly 3,100 troops remain deployed in the nation’s capital.

The New York Times : Are the School Culture Wars Over in Texas?

The Washington Post: Americans hate data centers. But they might not actually be raising prices.

The Wall Street Journal: To Cross the Red Sea, Shippers Email Houthi Rebels. Read Their Inbox.

NBC: 4 Cornell lawsuit defendants join effort to oust Letitia James from criminal investigation

The House and Senate are out. President Trump is in Washington and Florida. (All times Eastern)

1:30 p.m.: Trump participates in Diwali celebration.

6 p.m.: The president gives remarks from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

SATURDAY: Trump holds executive time and a policy meeting. First lady Melania Trump travels to Louisiana to establish a Fostering the Future Endowment Fund with Louisiana State University. She will also attend the Alabama vs. LSU football game.

SUNDAY: The president participates in executive time and returns to the White House.

📧 In today’s Evening Report : Recapping the day’s big stories and what’s coming tomorrow. Click here to sign up & get it in your inbox.

🧀 Celebrate : Today is National Nachos Day! We have made it through election week (even though some races remain uncalled). So, it is time to celebrate with a heaping pile of cheesy nachos. You deserve it!

🕊️ End of an era: Jay Rockefeller , the former West Virginia governor and five-term Democratic senator who championed healthcare access and broke with his family’s GOP tradition, has died at 89 . He was also heir to the vast Rockefeller oil fortune.

Washing away the stress of election season just like this baby elephant at the Dallas Zoo.

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