Shelley Moore Capito is retaining her leadership position as 4th ranking Senate Republican, even as balance of power is about to flip.
With Capito alongside West Virginia’s other Republican senator, Jim Justice, West Virginia will not have a senator in the majority for the first time since 2003-2007 when West Virginia was represented by Democrats Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller. The Republican Party held the majority in the U.S. Senate from 2003 through 2007.
As results stand right now, Democrats would hold 55 of 100 seats when new members are sworn in early next year. Alaska still has not been called.
“I guess if you went into the Republican cloakroom or the Democrat cloakroom, you’d probably have two different morales, to be honest with you. But you know, resounding defeat for us as Republicans in terms of losing the majority,” Capito said on MetroNews Talkline.
Still, Capito has goals for the next couple of months before the balance flips.
“So, in the immediate, we’re going to do permitting reform, which is a bipartisan effort that I’ve been leading. And in the long term, I think we’re sort of assessing the damage and and moving on and trying to strengthen our appeal to the voters,” she said.
A bipartisan federal permitting reform package pushed by Capito cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate earlier this week. The vote does not represent final passage of the legislation, but it allows the Senate to move forward with consideration of the bill.
The energy permitting reform legislation under consideration by the Senate, called the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, aims to accelerate the deployment of both traditional and clean energy infrastructure by slashing regulatory delays.
“I’m feeling pretty confident here and, you know, cautiously optimistic,” Capito said.
Capito this week was unanimously re-elected by her peers to lead the Senate Republican Policy Committee for the upcoming congressional session.
“I’m head of the policy committee, which is sort of the the the subject matter expert on all of these things. I have folks who help me create opinion papers and fact-based analysis of nominees or of legislation,” she said.
“So it’s a it’s kind of a grinding kind of a job, and I enjoy it, and I’m I’m happy to be re-elected. And I think what will happen, obviously, with leadership comes more power. I could put my finger on the scale for West Virginia in a lot of different ways, and I’m going to continue to do that as I have in the past. So it’s going to be an interesting next couple of years.”
The White House made a major personnel shift in the past week, moving policy chief and homeland security adviser Stephen Miller to chief of staff.
Capito said she knew Miller’s predecessor, Susie Wiles, fairly well but does not have a close relationship with Miller.
She said, “I’m hoping that, you know, he can keep the president focused on the areas that we’re talking about here that the American people really have the most concerns about. You know, the president himself says our messaging wasn’t all that good. It was just too off onto other things, I’ll just put it that way. And so I hope you can keep him focused.
“He doesn’t bring about neutral feelings from anybody. You either like him or a lot of people don’t like him. But I think he is a very disciplined individual, and the president trusts him. And I think a good chief of staff has to have the trust of their boss, and he does. And thus far, I have no reason not to trust him and look forward to working with him.”
Capito said focus should be on bread and butter economic issues, especially the cost of food and gasoline.
“We tell people every two and every four years: if you don’t like what’s going on, if you’re unhappy, you need to vote. And you know what? The American people voted. And when the American people put their minds to it and decide that they want to change the direction, they showed us this year they can do it,” she said.
Justice, West Virginia’s other senator, was elected in 2024 on a premise of ensuring Republicans would have a majority while emphasizing his longstanding relationship with President Trump. Justice has been considering a run for governor.
This week, Justice told national reporters that Republicans can “forget” about retaking the Senate majority in 2028.
“You can forget 2028. Absolutely,” Justice told the Washington Examiner. “I hope and pray we don’t lose the presidency. But this is such a colossal blow that it is beyond belief how colossal this is to America.”