Majority Leader Steve Scalise

Stephen Joseph Scalise is an American politician serving as House Majority Leader and U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 1st Congressional District, a heavily Republican seat covering most of New Orleans's suburbs including Metairie, Kenner, and Slidell as well as a portion of New Orleans itself. Born on October 6, 1965, in New Orleans, he is the son of a real estate broker and grew up in the Jefferson Parish suburbs. He graduated from Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie and earned a Bachelor of Science in computer science with a minor in political science from Louisiana State University, where he was a member of the Acacia Fraternity. His great-grandparents immigrated from Italy in the late 1800s and he serves on the board of the American Italian Renaissance Foundation.

Scalise entered elected office in 1995 when Louisiana Republicans recruited him to run for a state House seat in Jefferson Parish. He won and was reelected in 1999 and 2003, serving three terms. In October 2007 he won a state Senate seat in a three-way race with 61% of the vote, but left Baton Rouge months later when Republican congressman Bobby Jindal was elected governor and vacated Louisiana's 1st Congressional District. Scalise had previously deferred to party leaders who backed Jindal for the seat in 2004; this time he secured the Republican nomination and was sworn into Congress on May 7, 2008. He became the dean of the Louisiana congressional delegation in 2017 upon Senator David Vitter's retirement.

Scalise climbed the House Republican leadership ladder steadily over the following decade. After Eric Cantor's shocking 2014 primary defeat, Scalise won a three-way race for majority whip on the first ballot, becoming the first Louisianian in the role since Hale Boggs held it from 1962 to 1971. He chaired the Republican Study Committee from 2013 to 2014 before becoming whip, served as majority whip until 2019 when Republicans lost the House, then became minority whip until returning to the majority in 2023. He was elected Majority Leader unopposed in the 118th Congress. In October 2023 House Republicans chose him over Jim Jordan as their Speaker nominee 113 to 99, but he withdrew after failing to consolidate the 217 votes needed, and fellow Louisianan Mike Johnson was ultimately elected Speaker.

On June 14, 2017, during practice for the annual Congressional Baseball Game in Alexandria, Virginia, Scalise was shot in the hip by a left-wing gunman targeting Republican members. He arrived at the hospital in critical condition with an imminent risk of death from a bullet that fractured bones, damaged internal organs, and caused severe internal bleeding. He spent more than three months recovering, returned to the House floor on September 28 to a standing ovation, and has remained an outspoken defender of Second Amendment rights despite his experience. In August 2023 he announced a multiple myeloma diagnosis, describing the cancer as detected early and very treatable, and returned to work the following month while beginning chemotherapy.

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