PERSON: Tom Emmer

U.S. House of Representatives

Majority Whip

Thomas Earl Emmer Jr. (born March 3, 1961) is an American attorney and politician who has served as majority whip in the United States House of Representatives since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he has represented Minnesota’s 6th congressional district since 2015.

Before his election to Congress, Emmer served three terms as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011. He lost the 2010 Minnesota gubernatorial election to Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party nominee Mark Dayton by less than half a percentage point. Emmer was elected to Congress in 2014, winning the 6th district seat being vacated by Michele Bachmann. He has been reelected four times. The district includes the far western and northern suburbs of Minneapolis in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, most of the St. Cloud metropolitan area, and a large part of rural Central Minnesota, generally an agricultural region.

Emmer chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee from 2019 to 2023. After Republicans gained a narrow-than-expected majority in the 2022 U.S. House of Representatives elections, he won a contested election for majority whip, 115-106.

Emmer initially cast doubt on the 2020 U.S. presidential election results, saying that certain states used “questionable” practices in administering the vote. After signing an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit seeking to contest the outcome in key swing states, Emmer ultimately voted to certify the Electoral College vote count.

Emmer was the House Republican Conference’s third nominee for the October 2023 speaker of the House election, after Steve Scalise withdrew and Jim Jordan failed to garner the votes needed in the first three ballots. He withdrew himself from the race shortly after former president Donald Trump voiced his opposition, calling him “totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters” and a “Globalist RINO”. In January 2024, Emmer endorsed Trump for president.

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