Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith Moves to Freeze House GOP Leadership Elections

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) is calling on Republicans to hold off on electing their leadership, arguing the conference needs to take a hard look at itself first. In his view, the GOP should understand how it lost voters' trust in Tuesday's midterms before it moves forward as a unified group. He paired the delay demand with a push to reform the conference's rules.

Smith leaned on how little time has passed since the vote. The elections were less than a week ago, he noted, saying Republicans still need to grasp how and why they lost the trust of voters. The Missouri Republican's intervention lands as the party reckons with steep midterm losses.

That's the whole of what Smith has put on the table so far: stall the leadership races, dig into the midterm collapse, and change how the conference operates. Whether other House Republicans sign on is now the open question inside the GOP.