House leader Steve Scalise stumps nationally for Republicans and in Louisiana for reelection

WASHINGTON — Facing weak opposition, Majority Leader Steve Scalise has been spending more time campaigning out of state, trying to ensure that Republicans retain or even increase their four-seat majority in the U.S. House in November’s elections.

Scalise is second in command in the House — behind only fellow Louisiana native House Speaker Mike Johnson — and helps select committee chairs and set the legislative agenda.

Scalise has stumped for GOP candidates in more than 100 House districts across 29 states. He's raised $55.8 million so far this election cycle, doling out $10 million of it directly to candidates and $15.2 million to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

At the same time, he's campaigning for reelection in his 1st Congressional District, which now includes Tulane University in uptown New Orleans and parts or all of nine suburban New Orleans parishes.

Dressed casually in a pullover, khaki pants and tennis shoes the day before his 59th birthday, Scalise spoke at a recent Abita Springs rally, lavishing praise on former President Donald Trump and vilifying Vice President Kamala Harris.

Scalise didn’t even ask the crowd to vote for him. If the past is any indicator, he didn’t need to.

In the nine contests since first being elected in May 2008 to replace Bobby Jindal in the House, Scalise has won outright with at least two-thirds of the ballots cast — usually with more than 70% of the vote. In 2022, he polled almost twice as many votes in Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes alone than his two opponents received in the entire district — combined.

Since then, the Louisiana Legislature made Scalise more secure by giving the 1st District 15,074 more White registered voters — now 79.4% of the 528,500 total — and 12,218 more Republicans, mostly by adding GOP-dominated precincts from Ascension, Livingston and St. Charles parishes.

Challengers face steep odds

Scalise faces two Republicans, a Democrat, and a challenger without party affiliation.

Only one, Mel Manuel, a Democrat from Madisonville, has raised money and filed a financial disclosure with the House clerk.

The other three — Republicans Randall Arrington of Ponchatoula and Ross Shales of New Orleans, along with Frankie Hyers, who's not party affiliated — are running their campaigns via social media.

Manuel has raised $48,827, with $22,663 on hand as of Sept. 30, according to Federal Elections Commission filings.

Scalise has raised $10.5 million and has $3.1 million cash on hand.

Among the largest contributors to Scalise are Ochsner Health System, which owns the hospital near Scalise’s house in Jefferson, and GEO Group, a Florida company that invests in private prisons, immigration detention centers, and mental health facilities, according to Open Secrets, a Washington, D.C., based nonprofit that tracks campaign financial filings.

By industry, hospitals and nursing homes contributed $9 million to Scalise, and pro-Israel interests kicked in $376,327, Open Secrets reported.

All national handicappers predict an easy win for Scalise.

Campaigning in Louisiana

Scalise and his staff insist that all his traveling isn't coming at the expense of his district.

In an interview after the Abita Springs rally, Scalise said he remains focused on delivering more federal dollars for his district, to protect coastal areas, and to prevent flooding.

“I’ve brought billions of dollars into the state,” he said.

Scalise claims the Biden administration has blocked the production of more oil and gas.

“That means less jobs, less coastal restoration for Louisiana,” Scalise said. “We need to change those policies.”

Scalise was the chief sponsor of a bill aimed at relaxing regulation and increasing production of fossil fuels. The House passed the legislation in March 2023 on a 225 to 204 vote, with only four Democrats favoring it. The Senate has yet to take up the bill for consideration.

One national issue Scalise didn’t want to touch on is Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election. Scalise objected to certification of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes and opposed impeaching Trump for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

“There were states that didn’t follow their laws,” Scalise said, repeating a talking point that courts have rejected.

Pressed on the issue, he replied: “I’m not talking about the 2020 election.”

Stumping nationally

Scalise has helped lead the way in the Republican election-year focus on illegal immigration, including the controversial claim during recent hurricanes that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was misusing emergency response money.

At a stump speech in Phoenix, Arizona, Scalise referred to the Border Patrol hiring FEMA to oversee housing immigrants who crossed the U.S. border without proper documentation.

“FEMA, among a whole bunch of other federal agencies, has been using your tax dollars that are supposed to help you as American citizens," he said. "They use that money helping illegals here that they brought into America.”

Conservative groups rate Scalise as very conservative.

CPAC’s Center for Legislative Accountability scores Scalise at 91.43, making him the most conservative member of the Louisiana delegation other than Speaker Johnson, whose lifetime rating is 92.

CPAC credits Scalise for voting conservatively on all 12 Second Amendment right-to-bear-arms bills presented during his tenure, all 39 energy and environment bills, and all 21 resolutions dealing with human dignity, such voting against legislation requiring federal agencies to collect gender identifiers.

On the other side of the political spectrum, the American Civil Liberties Union says Scalise votes with them 11% of the time, citing his performance on bills such as eliminating sentencing disparities that send crack cocaine users to prison longer than those who use powder cocaine. Scalise voted against D.C. statehood and against creating a pathway to citizenship for certain immigrants. He supported Trump’s 2017 executive order temporarily banning people from seven Muslim countries from entering the U.S.

From state lawmaker to House leader

Scalise’s path into leadership began in 2014, when then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was defeated in his suburban Richmond district. That gave Scalise a shot at becoming the House Republican Whip as others moved up the leadership ladder.

Scalise entered state politics at age 30 when he was elected to the Louisiana House, where he served for a dozen years. A few months after being elected to the state Senate, Jindal became governor in 2008, and Scalise then won his U.S. House seat.

In June 2017, he was shot and seriously wounded by a would-be assassin who opposed Trump and targeted Republicans during a practice for that year’s Congressional Baseball Game. He underwent surgery and four months of treatment. 

Scalise took time out in 2023 after being diagnosed with cancer. But he said he is now in remission and completely healthy.

When House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted in an October 2023 coup orchestrated by a handful of Republican right-wingers, Scalise came a dozen or so votes shy of winning the speakership. He withdrew, and after three weeks of chaos, the Republican majority selected Johnson, another member of the Louisiana delegation. Scalise remained House Majority leader.

Democratic opponent

His current Democratic challenger, Manuel, sits on the Louisiana Democratic Party’s executive committee. Manuel argues that Scalise has been in Congress for 16 years, yet Louisiana workers still are among the lowest paid in the country.

A graduate of Covington High and Tulane University, Manuel works at University View Academy, a charter school in Baton Rouge.

Manuel is co-director of Queer Louisiana and spokesperson for St. Tammany Library Alliance, according to filings with the House Clerk.

“I didn’t consider myself politically minded until Christian nationalists put a target on the backs of the LGBTQ+ community in the form of pro-censorship movements and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation,” Manuel says on the campaign website.