Rep. Greg Steube demanded that Republican congressional leaders step aside after the party’s midterm defeat, accusing them of abandoning conservative voters and ignoring warnings from their own members. The Florida Republican directed his criticism at leadership in both chambers. He called for replacements willing to govern on the principles Republicans had campaigned on.
Steube issued his statement on November 4th, the day after Democrats won control of the House and Senate. Republicans suffered Senate defeats in states including Texas, South Carolina and Kansas. The results left President Donald Trump facing Democratic majorities during the final two years of his presidency, with leadership fights already developing inside the GOP.
Steube opened his message by addressing Republican Senate and House leadership, putting the word “Leadership” in quotation marks. He immediately challenged any effort to blame inaccurate polling for the outcome. “No, the polls were not wrong. You were,” he wrote. “Even with record amounts of money at your disposal, you managed to get absolutely annihilated.”
As Breitbart reported, Steube then accused party leaders of allowing moderates to dictate their approach. “You have been embarrassingly weak and more afraid of governing conservatively than of disappointing the voters who put us in office.” He continued, “Instead of standing firm on our principles, you have governed out of fear, continually knelt to the moderates in our conference (who all got crushed last night anyway), and discarded conservatives like me who warned of last night’s results.”
The congressman finished his post with a direct request for a change at the top. “Please do us all a favor and step aside so new leadership can take a truly conservative direction, with the courage to do the things we were elected to do.” He signed off with a familiar Trump phrase: “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
The leadership contest began taking shape Wednesday morning when House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he would not seek the minority leader position in the next Congress. The Washington Examiner reported that Steve Scalise and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan were pursuing the top Republican job. Scalise’s proposed pitch emphasized his experience and a return to the majority. Jordan’s letter to colleagues emphasized his oversight experience and preparations for responding to Democratic investigations.
Watch Steube discuss Trump’s campaign strategy in this October 30th Fox Business interview:
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The competition extended to the party’s vote-counting operation, with Rep. August Pfluger preparing to challenge Tom Emmer for whip. Pfluger’s letter urged Republicans to examine their performance and develop a clearer plan for winning in 2028. Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain also planned to seek another term, according to a source familiar with her plans who spoke to the Examiner.
Vice President JD Vance separately argued that Republicans needed to change their priorities after losing voters who had supported the Trump ticket in 2024. As Just the News reported, he cited polling indicating those voters wanted the Iran war ended, greater attention to living costs, and changes in the relationship with Israel. Vance attributed the findings to an unnamed pollster and argued that defections were the central problem. “The reason we lost is the war,” he wrote. “The president himself said so last night.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.