A new setback for Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA) defeated Rep. Tom Price (GA) on Wednesday to become the next House Republican Conference Chairman, according to a person in the room during the vote.
It’s a wake-up call for Ryan, who urged colleagues in a letter Tuesday morning to support Price, the former chief of the deeply conservative Republican Study Committee, and favorite of the party’s right wing.
McMorris Rodgers was Speaker John Boehner’s preference. Currently the vice chair of the GOP conference and highest ranking House Republican woman, she has been a loyal surrogate for leadership and has earned the Speaker’s trust.
Her victory in the hard-fought battle could foretell the direction the conference will move following President Obama’s re-election and the expanded Democratic majority in the Senate.
The source, a spokesperson for the Conference, told TPM that he did not have an exact vote count upon revealing the result during the closed-door meeting.
