House Republicans ready to take next steps after historic wins on Election Day

Following a historic wave of GOP victories across the state, Kentucky House Republicans are ready to get to work as the supermajority and pass pro-business legislation, Rep. Jonathan Shell says.

In an interview with The Bottom Line the day after the elections, Rep. Shell noted the historic nature of Tuesday’s election with Republican Donald Trump winning the presidential election, the GOP maintaining the majority in the U.S. Senate and the incredible shift in power at the state House level.

“Here in Kentucky, we saw us go from a minority to a supermajority. We went from 47 members to 64 in one election cycle,” Shell said. “The citizens of Kentucky, I think, sent a strong message that they are looking for a government that is working for them again.”

In the aftermath of those elections, Shell says a GOP majority in the House is set to work on passing legislation that will help Kentucky become more competitive and help business rather than focusing on partisan politics.

“I think what you are going to see, mainly, is a pro-business [agenda] and looking at ways of how we can make every day Kentuckians’ lives easier and how to grow the prosperity in Kentucky,” Shell said (at 3:00 in the video below). “We have so many great ideas that for so long were just put in the receptacles in Frankfort and thrown away as trash. And those things are going to be taken in serious consideration now that we have a Republican Speaker of the House in, what will soon be, Jeff Hoover, and a Republican led state House of Representatives with some great new members that are coming in.”

Hear Rep. Shell discuss some of the key issues on which he believes his caucus will focus, next steps in the process, and more in the full interview below:

The first steps the new Republican majority will need to take before the General Assembly convenes in January is to elect members of leaderships and appoint committee chairs, which Shell says will happen over the next month and a half.

The Republican caucus recently announced they have selected Rep. Jeff Hoover to officially become the new Speaker of the House of Representatives and will be electing the other four legislative leaders on November 30 before they have a caucus retreat the first week of December.

Watch part one of Rep. Shell’s interview with The Bottom Line about his biggest surprises on election night here.