(The Center Square) – Picks for the president’s Cabinet are rightly garnering headlines, but another in the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives retains a North Carolina flavor indicating job well done.
The House majority was finally called for Republicans on Wednesday afternoon, on the eighth day after the election, and the party chose to keep U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson as the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Hudson is the first North Carolinian to serve in the role.
“I am humbled by my colleagues’ vote of confidence to continue to lead the effort to hold our House majority for another term,” Hudson said in a statement. “I sought this role because the people in my district are fed up with the direction of the country.”
He said Election Day was a referendum on President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and the policies carried out by Democrats.
“If we deliver on our promise to lower prices, secure the border, and unleash American energy, I am confident the American people will reward us at the ballot box in 2026,” Hudson said.
The committee, formed 158 years ago, is a nonprofit tax-exempt organization falling under the label 527 group – so named for the section of the Internal Revenue Code. The Library of Congress says it “supports the election of Republicans to the House through direct financial contributions to candidates and Republican Party organizations; technical and research assistance to Republican candidates and party organizations; voter registration, education and turnout programs; and other party-building activities.”
Chairmen are allowed to serve two terms. Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., held the post before Hudson and on Wednesday was reelected by his party to stay in the No. 3 spot as the chamber’s majority whip. Louisianans Mike Johnson, as speaker, and Steve Scalise, as majority leader, occupy the top spots.
Hudson won a seventh term in his bid for the 119th Congress, defeating Democrat Nigel William Bristow 56.4%-37.7% in a seven-county region in the central part of the state.
