Congress
The Freedom Caucus is losing its stalwarts. Here’s who to watch next.
After more than a decade at the center of GOP politics on Capitol Hill, the House Freedom Caucus is suddenly confronting an unsettled future.
Several of the hard-right bloc’s most prominent members are leaving Congress next year after seeking higher office — including a former chair, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, and several media-friendly voices such as Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Byron Donalds of Florida and Ralph Norman of South Carolina, among others.
“We’re losing a lot of talent — there’s no doubt about it,” Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona said. “So it’s just kind of like a next-man-up mentality.”
But which man is very much in question. The current chair, Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, is term-limited, and a new generation of combative ultraconservatives is ready to step in just as the caucus comes to terms with a potentially changing role on Capitol Hill.
The group will be facing twin challenges — a potential shift to a Democratic House majority, which has historically made the caucus less pivotal, and the looming transition to a Republican Party without a President Donald Trump, who has been an animating force for most of its members.
“Across the country, people know who the Freedom Caucus is,” said Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana. “The next couple of years is going to be important for the caucus.”
The group has reinvented itself in the past, with new leaders emerging as old members move on. Donalds recalled when former chair Mark Meadows of North Carolina departed for the White House in Trump’s first term.
“They’re like, ‘Well, what’s going to be the future of HFC?’ And in came Chip Roy, in came a Byron Donalds,” he said with a grin. “We just kind of kept it going.”
The only founding member still serving in the House is Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who could make a play for minority leader if Republicans lose the majority in November — further scrambling the caucus’ historic role as a hard-right vanguard.
Harris will remain a member, as will fellow former chair Scott Perry of Pennsylvania — if he can win what’s expected to be a competitive general-election race. Veteran members such as Reps. Michael Cloud and Keith Self of Texas will also be influential.
But a number of relatively obscure members are ready to make moves and become the new faces of the hard right in the House.
Eric Burlison
Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri is in his second term but has shown an unmistakable thirst to be at the center of the action since arriving in the House. Currently an HFC board member, Burlinson said he is considering running to be the next chair.
“You obviously have to be selected by your peers, and that would be the greatest honor,” he said in an interview. “There’s no one I respect more than the people that are members of HFC.”
He spent over a decade in the Missouri statehouse before heading to Congress, after working as a software consultant. Last summer he was a vocal member pushing for the full release of the Epstein files and has become a leading Republican pushing for more information on UFOs.
Burlison noted that a future chair will be inheriting a nationally recognized Freedom Caucus “brand” that includes a plethora of state-level and local groups that have adopted the name. He said the original HFC should look at ways to “leverage” that brand but also protect it from being adopted by groups that aren’t in line with its conservative vision.
“We have to kind of protect our image,” he said. ”So I think we need to get that figured out.”
Andrew Clyde
Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia has managed to amass significant power by Freedom Caucus standards by winning seats on the Appropriations and Budget committees, which have allowed him to push for conservative positions on those influential panels.
Clyde, another board member, said in an interview he had not yet thought about running for chair but noted that “you don’t have to be the chairman to have outsized influence.”
He added that while the group is losing some high-profile members, the president’s conservative agenda has attracted several likely incoming members to the group.
“We’re seeing some folks that have not supported the Freedom Caucus before that are coming on board to support the House Freedom Caucus,” Clyde said. “So I think you’ll see [an] even greater presence.”
Brandon Gill
Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas, a freshman and the youngest sitting House Republican, is already seen as a rising star inside the House GOP. He has said he wants to emulate Jordanand has a seat on Judiciary, the committee his governing idol chairs.
Gill has made a name for himself through provocative social media posts, regular appearances on Fox News and splashy legislative moves such as seeking to impeach James Boasberg, the federal judge who ruled against some of Trump’s deportations last year.
He does not, however, break with GOP leaders as often as some other Freedom Caucus members and could encounter internal doubts as to whether he’d be willing to play internal hardball in the same way as prior chairs.
Clay Higgins
Higgins is one of the more senior Freedom Caucus members — and one of the more controversial. The former sheriff has been a prominent proponent of conspiracy theories around the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and he was the only lawmaker to oppose the release of the Epstein files.
Also currently a board member, he said in an interview he has not ruled out seeking the caucus chair post. But he also said he was “not interested in campaigning” for the job and would like to see a “peaceful transition.”
Higgins did boast having “a pretty solid reputation within the caucus as a thoughtful conservative” and is hoping the group focuses more on policymaking in its next iteration rather than obstructing leadership prerogatives.
“We’re either going to go deeper into being a meaningful, effective conservative faction for the entire country, or we could bounce in the other direction and be more like protesters in the parking lot,” he said.
Andy Ogles
Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee has been a controversy magnet in the wider political sphere — known for a long-running campaign finance investigation that was recently dropped by the Justice Department and a series of offensive public statements on Muslims, immigrants and other groups.
But inside the Freedom Caucus, he has emerged as a serious force over two terms, with his name floated for chair even before the end of his first term. He did not rule out running for chair or another caucus leadership position in a recent interview.
“All I care about is winning,” Ogles said, referring to the caucus agenda. “If I’m better in a second or tertiary role, that’s what I’ll do to make sure we deliver on the president’s agenda. If that means I’m the chairman, then so be it.”
Ogles said the upcoming turnover represents a good opportunity to renew and potentially rethink how the group operates: “We’re going into the presidential. Sometimes you need fresh ideas, fresh faces.”
Democrats have spent the better part of two years looking on in glee as House Republicans have struggled to wrangle their narrow majority and enact a consensus agenda.
Now, eyeing a potentially small majority of their own, they are eager not to see the shoe quickly land on the other foot — which is why Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is under fierce internal pressure to crack down on a surprise rebellion this week.
The decision by Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) and Jared Golden (D-Maine) to support a Republican procedural measure that would have otherwise failed — essentially bailing out Speaker Mike Johnson’s floor agenda — prompted Jeffries and fellow Democratic leaders to decry a “breach of trust” and promise a “serious response.”
Rank-and-file members are watching closely to see if Jeffries follows through on those threats and moves to rein in rogue members who could undermine the party agenda and his own leadership.
“If there’s no understanding that we need to stay together on procedural measures, then we’re going to be like Republicans,” said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Rules Committee Democrat and a Jeffries ally. “I mean, they can’t get anything done because everybody’s going off in different directions.”
Many Democrats are hoping Jeffries will set an assertive tone and send a message that some protest tactics will not be tolerated in a future majority. The situation is of particular interest to members given the slate of insurgent hard-left members poised to join the caucus next term — some of whom have openly discussed adopting strategies embraced by the hard right.
“It’s an open secret — we don’t want to end up with our own Freedom Caucus,” one House Democrat granted anonymity to speak candidly said in an interview, referring to the fractious ultraconservative group. “You see how a core group of people can stop the workings here … when it’s continual and it’s just about grandstanding. … We don’t want that.”
“I’m not saying that those folks coming in are going to operate in that way,” the member added. “We don’t know. But we’ve got to tighten up the systems.”
Already, House Democrats have competing views about how and when to punish the rogue members. Multiple members, for example, have privately suggested kicking Gluesenkamp Perez off of the Appropriations Committee — a highly coveted assignment.
But others acknowledge that leaders have little leverage against the duo. Golden is leaving the House at the end of this term, and Gluesenkamp Perez is one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the country.
Keeping her seat in a district President Donald Trump won by 3 percentage points in 2024 could determine the outcome of the midterm elections, and she has made her clashes with party leaders a core part of her political identity.
Some members — including progressives who used procedural votes for leverage during Nancy Pelosi’s speakership — also cautioned leadership from overpolicing members.
Asked about how Jeffries should “punish” the members, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former chair of the Progressive Caucus, said, “We’re not kids, and he’s not our dad.”
“I’m elected by 750,000 people. I get to make my decisions about what I want,” Jayapal said before adding, “At the same time, I think there has to be a strong commitment to the team.”
“I think that there can be certain reasonable expectations — for example, to flag how one may intend to vote on something,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said. “I also think that the idea that there will be consequences depending on how that is laid out could create a slippery slope.”
Both of the rebels are shrugging off the intense reaction from Democratic leaders and some of their colleagues. Golden said he voted with Republicans to advance a bill he cosponsored benefiting lobstermen in Maine; Gluesenkamp Perez said she voted to support Golden and “people who make their livelihoods and heritage on the water.”
“I do not have a polished political strategy,” she told reporters Wednesday. “I know my community, and that’s who sent me here, and that’s who I am thinking about.”
Many of their Democratic colleagues aren’t ready to just let it go, however. Several argued in interviews that if every member broke ranks on procedural votes to advance legislation they support, the party would lose significant leverage.
“I am generally of the view that if you believe that you are a free agent in this town, maybe you don’t get to use the team locker room anymore,” Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) said, adding that he could not think of a potential punishment “within the scope of what leadership can do that could be opposed by the caucus.”
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) said “some tough love“ might be necessary to send a message to the broader caucus: “We’re all in this together.”
Amid the agita, it’s not clear how quickly Jeffries will act. An internal committee dealing with caucus rules met Wednesday and discussed the matter but did not advance any specific proposals for sanctions or rules changes.
Jeffries himself has not committed to a timeline for imposing consequences against the two defectors. He told reporters Wednesday he wants to pursue action “sooner rather than later” as he faces internal questions about whether he can exert the same level of control over Democrats as his predecessor did.
Pelosi dealt with rebellions of her own, including moderates who repeatedly voted with Republicans to amend Democratic bills on the floor. But she pointedly commented on the disloyalty on display this week, with Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez essentially voting to advance the GOP floor agenda.
“We didn’t even consider that anybody would do that,” she said Tuesday. “We never had that problem, so I’m disappointed that they did that.”
Another lawmaker who was happy to comment Wednesday was Johnson, who has routinely contended with GOP mutinies during his time in office — including one that Gluesenkamp Perez and Golden bailed him out of Tuesday.
Jeffries “has a serious problem in his caucus,” he told reporters, citing the “warring factions in his party.”
“I don’t see a way out of that thicket,” he said. “But I’m not going to tell him how to govern his conference, and he doesn’t, or shouldn’t, be telling me how to.”
Sen. Thom Tillis renewed his call for President Donald Trump to fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, following the resignation earlier this week of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.
“I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country,” the outgoing two-term North Carolina Republican wrote on X. “He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and well-being of our fighting force.”
Driscoll, whose long-rumored resignation became official this week, had clashed with Hegseth over the Defense secretary’s reluctance to modernize the Army and his firings of dozens of senior officers. Hegseth has focused more on cultural issues — including grooming and fitness standards — within the department.
“If we had a @SecWar who maintained the same priorities and forward-thinking, he would be fighting to retain talented leaders like Dan and the many flag officers he has forced into retirement,” Tillis charged. “Instead, he is creating a leadership void at the top of our military ranks.”
The White House and Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment on Tillis’ post.
Tillis, who is not running for reelection in November, has openly clashed with Hegseth since Trump tapped the former Fox News host to lead the Pentagon in 2024.
In May, Tillis told POLITICO he believed Hegseth had misinformed Trump on the dynamics of a war in Iran. Firing Hegseth, he said, was on “a Christmas wish list.” In a book set to be released next month, Tillis branded Hegseth — along with a handful of other White House officials — as “MAGATS” and accused them of “not looking around corners and taking care of this president.”
It hasn’t earned him friends in the administration.
“The media said how brave he was to take me on, but he wasn’t brave, he was just the opposite – HE WAS A QUITTER!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in May. “Now he can have all the fun he wants for a few months, with some of his RINO friends, screwing the Republican Party. In the end it will only get bigger, and better, and stronger, than ever before!”
Despite a stern message from party leaders, a panel of House Democrats did not settle on any particular consequences for the pair of lawmakers who crossed party lines Tuesday to advance an otherwise troubled slate of Republican-led bills.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and fellow leaders said the matter would be reviewed by the Democratic Committee on Caucus Rules, which convened Wednesday morning for a prescheduled listening session.
Attendees discussed possible changes to the rules that govern House Democrats’ conduct for next term. Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), the panel’s chair, suggested to reporters that discussion included what should happen if members vote with Republicans on procedural measures like the one Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) supported Tuesday.
“There’s been a variety of suggestions to change our rules, not just regarding the last couple days, but several suggestions that have been percolating for some time,” Levin said, while adding that any changes would happen only “in the next couple of months.”
The lack of urgency stands in contrast to the stern statement Jeffries and fellow leaders made Tuesday about the rogue members’ “breach of trust” — not to mention the rage some rank-and-file House Democrats are expressing. Some have floated removing the pair from their committees — particularly Gluesenkamp Perez’ seat on the exclusive Appropriations panel.
“Somebody else who is willing to think about other people needs to be on that seat, that exclusive committee,” said one House Democrat granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Jeffries, who was not present at the meeting, also seemed to have a speedier timeline for responding to Gluesenkamp Perez and Golden. He told reporters after the meeting wrapped that he was waiting on feedback from Levin and that the caucus would have conversations “amongst the family about the best way to move forward.”
Asked about his timeline for action against the pair, Jeffries said, “Sooner rather than later.”
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