Members are trickling back into D.C. as both chambers gavel in after the holiday break. The next few weeks are expected to be brutal, especially given the simmering angst within the House G.O.P. conference about the leadership of Mike Johnson, who heads into a hellacious negotiating season with an eventual one-vote margin. (This instability will escalate tensions around the Hill for the next few weeks.) But come February, Congress will be obsessed with the outcome of New York’s Feb. 13 House special election, after which primary season will consume the attention of members and staffers. In fact, it’s already starting. Here’s what’s going around today:
- Rogers’ Surprise Supplication: Michigan’s Mike Rogers (not to be confused with Alabama’s Mike Rogers) endorsed Donald Trump on Tuesday, just days before the Iowa caucuses. While this may seem like the price of admission for any Republican Senate candidate—Rogers is a viable general election challenger to Democratic phenom Elissa Slotkin for Debbie Stabenow’s Michigan seat—this nod is yet another reminder that the Republican Party is never, ever going back to its pre-Trump worldview.