Congress
Meet the new members: From governor to rank-and-file senator
The new member: Sen.-elect Jim Justice (R-W.Va.)
How they got here: Justice, West Virginia’s sitting governor, easily defeated Democrat Glenn Elliott by more than 40 percentage points to flip control of this Senate seat for Republicans.
Inside the campaign: Since announcing his Senate bid in April 2023, Justice was the heavy favorite for this key GOP flip opportunity. He easily dispatched Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) in the GOP primary by more than 35 percentage points.
Justice is termed out as governor, making the Senate a tempting opportunity. His push got even easier when longtime Sen. Joe Manchin (I) announced he would not run for reelection. “I will tell you just this, with all in me, you shook up the world, we shook up the world … and now the challenges are unbelievable with what’s going on in D.C.,” Justice said at his victory speech.
The issues he’ll focus on: Justice has told reporters in West Virginia he hopes to nab spots on the Finance and Energy committees. He’s been especially critical of the Biden administration for its policies on energy and the southern border, topics he’s sure to focus on once a member of the Senate.
One non-policy matter of interest will be Justice’s attendance. People from both political parties detailed the governor’s iffy attendance record in the state to POLITICO earlier this year. Others fear health issues could complicate his participation in routine Senate business.
Background: Justice is one of the wealthier people in West Virginia, having inherited a coal mining company and owning the financially troubled Greenbrier luxury resort.
He won election to the governor’s office in 2016 as a Democrat but quickly reversed course and became a Republican less than seven months later. He easily won reelection in 2020 and has enjoyed high approval ratings throughout his tenure as governor.
Campaign ad that caught our eye: Justice encouraged folks to vote early in the Senate race alongside his omnipresent pet dog, Babydog. “Bring it home for Babydog and I,” he said.
Fun fact: Justice has been head coach of the girls basketball squad at Greenbrier East High School in Fairlea, West Virginia, since 2003, a position he’s steadily maintained even while governor.
We’re spotlighting new members during the transition. Want more? Meet Reps.-elect Wesley Bell (D-Mo.) and George Latimer (D-N.Y.).
The Senate Judiciary Committee has abandoned plans to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general Thursday, according to a committee spokesperson.
The decision comes as Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) continue to push the Justice Department to revise a controversial settlement agreement between President Donald Trump and the IRS. A “no” vote from either senator would effectively sink Blanche’s nomination.
The two senators met Wednesday with Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) but did not announce any breakthrough.
“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure,” said the spokesperson, who declined to be named. “Senators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement. Tomorrow’s markup is postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support in committee to favorably report [Blanche], who is highly qualified for the job.”
The meeting could still be rescheduled if Cornyn and Tillis are placated, but any delay threatens Senate GOP leaders’ plans to confirm Blanche before the chamber adjourns for its summer recess next week.
White House officials urged Senate Republicans on Wednesday to quickly adopt a spending blueprint for a narrowly focused party-line spending bill, but they struggled to quash GOP skepticism about the administration’s vision.
White House budget director Russ Vought stressed during the private lunch meeting with Senate Republicans that the next package passed under the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process should include only President Donald Trump’s most urgent priorities — particularly defense spending and aid for farmers.
Vought said Republicans should not seek to cut spending or otherwise offset the deficit impact of the tens of billions of dollars the Trump administration wants enacted, nor should they attempt to raise the debt limit.
“It should be tight,” he told reporters as he exited the lunch. “It should be for the defense needs that we need now, for the [agriculture] needs that we need now. And to get this as straight a shot to the president’s desk as possible.”
That approach comports with the $95 billion framework the House adopted last week before lawmakers there left Washington for their summer recess. But Vought and other White House officials faced pushback in the room Wednesday on a variety of issues.
Majority Leader John Thune warned afterward that he doesn’t believe he has the votes for the narrow budget resolution the Trump administration is contemplating. He said there was a disconnect between the narrow bill the White House is seeking and the political challenges it creates.
Those challenges revolve around “vote-a-rama” — a feature of the reconciliation process that allows Democrats to force a series of amendment votes that could put GOP senators in tough spots. The more committees the budget resolution “instructs” to deliver legislation, the more opportunities Democrats will have to create political mischief for Republicans.
“Some of the things that are contemplated being done in this reconciliation bill, or in this budget resolution legislation, are things that could implicate a number of committees,” Thune said. “Obviously that creates an uphill challenge in terms of trying to ensure that you have 50” votes.
Senators also aired concerns about Trump’s obsessive focus on the GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act. The House blueprint contemplates including parts of that bill in the party-line package.
But Senate Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said doing so in the Senate could involve more committees — and open up the range of issues Democrats would be able to force politically troublesome votes on.
“I think we all hate vote-a-rama,” Johnson added. “Some people are more sensitive to the kind of votes they have to take.”
In another complication, some Senate defense hawks want more military spending than the $60 billion House Republicans laid out in their own framework. Johnson said he and other Republicans expect to meet with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later Wednesday to discuss the Pentagon’s needs.
But other Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), aren’t convinced it’s a good idea to pursue another party-line bill at all.
“It used to be we would try to figure out how we worked through some challenging problems with the minority,” she said.
Murkowski added that the Trump administration’s strategy of relying on the reconciliation process to avoid bipartisan negotiations only works if a majority of Republican senators go along with the plan.
“It’s not always guaranteed that you get 50” votes, she said.
Vought, meanwhile, leaned on the potential for yet another party-line reconciliation package to be enacted after the midterm elections as another vehicle to deliver key priorities. That could include a debt limit increase, he said, along with yet another tranche of defense cash to meet Trump’s $1.5 trillion goal for annual military spending.
The various legislative vehicles left some GOP senators scratching their hands as they left the lunch.
Asked if he had gotten clarity from Vought & Co., Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, “‘Not really’ is the short answer.”
Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz said Wednesday he is again postponing a highly anticipated markup of artificial intelligence bills planned for next week.
Instead, the Texas Republican said in an interview Wednesday, the panel will only take up bills focused on kids’ online safety.
Cruz said senators could not strike a deal on AI legislation in time for the committee to vote next week.
“We are going to do a markup on kids’ safety next week,” Cruz told Blue Light News. “We have moved the broader AI markup to September. … It’s our intention still to mark those up, but it is taking longer to get bipartisan agreement.”
Cruz said the committee would mark up the Kids Online Safety Act, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), along with other measures.
Under the panel’s rules, the chair must publish an agenda a week in advance. The committee did not immediately respond to a question about exactly which bills would be on the docket.
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