Three Republicans who are making a grand return to Capitol Hill
Darrell Issa, R-Calif.; Pete Sessions R-Texas; and Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., were at the peak of their political power when they lost it all.
“There are a couple of things that have to do with defeat,” Sessions told Fox News Digital. “Probably the biggest one is that, I think, Republicans were at a weak point of our existence in large cities all across America. And we’ve lost them ever since.”
Sessions, who had served in Congress 11 terms and chaired the powerful House Rules Committee, lost his seat by about 18,000 votes in the 2018 “blue wave” midterm cycle that cost Republicans 40 seats in the House.
Tenney served in a ruby red district in upstate New York. She pushed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 forward, which helped lower personal income taxes and expanded the Child Tax Credit. But those deliverables were no match for what the Congresswoman calls “major issues with our election integrity” that cost her 4,500 votes and her re-election.
Issa, the former House Oversight Committee chair, never lost his seat. He told Fox News Digital he was moving on from Congress and nominated for a top trade position in the White House. But Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., did everything in his power to block Issa by illuminating an FBI file that showed Issa used a fake ID when he was 17.
Issa told Fox Digital he learned that “18 years of working with a House member who becomes a senator doesn’t guarantee he won’t screw you.”
“Menendez blocked me for two years. It just didn’t matter that we served together, voted together, worked bills together. It was just politics,” said Issa.
Flash forward five years. Issa, Tenney and Sessions are all back on top committees after returning as freshman members, losing seniority but forging new allies.
Issa is now a ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Tenney is the vice chair of a subcommittee in the House Foreign Affairs committee.
Sessions is the chairman of Government Operations and the Federal Workforce Subcommittee within the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
“You’re not the same as you were before you left,” said Issa. “I came back with my seniority and with the committees I wanted to be on. But I’ve been treated very, very well by a lot of the people like Jim Jordan. He had worked for me as a subcommittee chairman while I was gone. He became the boss.”
Despite the power dynamics shifting since returning to Congress, many freshman members have sought advice from the veteran members on how to navigate committee assignments and deliver on their campaign promises.
“I routinely tell them, a committee is your career. You must treat it as you would a career,” said Sessions. “You have a learning pathway. You have a discipline about you, where you’ve got to get someone that works with you, you’ve got to attend meetings, you’ve got to read, you’ve got to go back home or somewhere in the marketplace and actually learn what actually happens.”