Speaker candidate Pete Sessions tries to unite factions of GOP
- Pete Sessions made over 100 calls in 48 hours as a GOP speaker candidate
- Sessions emphasizes unity and experience in his bid for speaker
- Sessions has a history of leadership and worked with Trump allies in the past
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(NewsNation) — Rep. Pete Sessions, one of the nine Republicans in the running for House speaker, made more than 100 phone calls in 48 hours after announcing his bid.
As the race intensifies, Sessions and his fellow contenders are making a flurry of phone calls and reaching out to fellow Republicans to secure their support.
“I want to give our members confidence that we can win on the floor tomorrow, we can win the election,” Sessions said in an interview with NewsNation’s Blake Burman.
After Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio lost his nomination as the Republican Party’s candidate for speaker, the contenders for the speaker role will face the same challenging dynamics within a deeply divided party conference that their predecessors struggled with.
He acknowledged the sense of uncertainty and unease among members of the Republican caucus given the tumultuous past two weeks.
“The pitch is real simple. I believe I have the experience,” he said.
Sessions’ pitch for his candidacy is based on his prior experience as the leader of the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2010. During that year, Republicans secured a majority in the House, gaining 63 seats.
“We did that because we all got together as a team. And if Republicans get together, we can achieve this,” he said.
Sessions said that strong figures like Steve Scalise and Jordan had opposing views on leadership, reflecting the contrasting ideologies within the party.
“It’s not a matter of compromising both sides. It’s a matter of working with both sides. And I think we can do that,” Sessions said.
Sessions, 68, initially served in Congress from 1997 to 2019. Following his defeat by a Democrat in 2018, Sessions ran for a seat in a neighboring district and successfully reclaimed a congressional seat in 2021.
He has a history of leadership, having previously served as the chairman of the House Republican Campaign Committee and as the chairman of the influential Rules Committee.
In 2019, Sessions took part in a campaign alongside allies of former President Trump that focused on Marie L. Yovanovitch, the then-ambassador to Ukraine. He wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo advocating for her dismissal, citing her alleged “disdain” for the Trump administration.
