House Republicans voted Tuesday to keep Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota as their whip, elevating him to the No. 2 leadership post despite widespread frustration over last week's sweeping midterm losses. Emmer, 65, defeated Rep. August Pfluger of Texas 103-76 in a secret-ballot vote, according to two people present for the tally. The result moves Emmer up from the No. 3 spot in the House GOP hierarchy, where he will serve alongside Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who was elected minority leader earlier in the day. The vote came as Republicans grapple with a Democratic wave that erased their majority and prompted Speaker Mike Johnson to step down from leadership. Pfluger, 48, had argued that the existing leadership team should have done more to protect the majority, positioning himself as a fresh face for a party in need of a reset. Emmer, who has served as majority whip since 2023, helped secure the GOP majority in the 2022 midterms as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. He launched a bid for speaker later that year after Rep. Kevin McCarthy lost the gavel, winning an internal caucus vote—but President Donald Trump publicly opposed him, effectively killing the effort. At the time, Emmer was seen as a MAGA skeptic. He has since moved much closer to Trump, and his name was floated as a potential candidate for minority leader before he declined to seek the top slot several weeks before the midterms. Jordan, 62, a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus and a prominent Trump ally, defeated Majority Leader Steve Scalise 106-73 for the top job. He pitched himself as "battle tested on the oversight front" and argued he is best prepared to take on the incoming Democratic majority. Jordan's victory marks a dramatic turn for a lawmaker who lost a bid for minority leader in 2018 to McCarthy and failed to replace McCarthy as speaker in 2023 after a secret-ballot caucus vote went to Scalise. A group of moderate Republicans blocked Jordan from the speakership at the time, but many of those opponents will not be serving in the next Congress. Scalise, who has been in the top leadership ranks since 2014, made the case that he was better positioned to help Republicans win back the majority in 2028—a goal some in the party now doubt is achievable after last week's blue wave. The leadership elections proceeded despite a push from 31 Republican National Committee members from 21 states and two territories, who wrote a letter urging congressional Republicans to delay their votes by at least 30 days to reckon with the losses. "There is no way to sugarcoat what happened on Election Day," the RNC members wrote. "From coast to coast, and in some of the reddest parts of the country, Republicans were humiliated." They argued that "rushing these elections before examining what happened risks protecting the very leaders whose decisions need to be examined." Senate Republicans also met Tuesday to elect their leadership, with John Thune expected to be reelected as the top GOP leader despite calls from a handful of senators, including Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, for a delay. For House Republicans, the new leadership team inherits a diminished conference and the task of rebuilding ahead of the 2028 elections. Emmer's win suggests the caucus is not ready to clean house entirely, even as it elevates Jordan—a longtime outsider—to the top job.