‘It’s about the relationships’ GOP Whip Tom Emmer says about his leadership style
Republican whip Tom Emmer told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that he attributes strong relationships and his experience as a hockey coach to the way he approaches his job as the No. 3 Republican in the House.
Emmer, R-Minn., who got his start in politics by serving on his church council, said it was important to him to get involved in his local community, which had only about 2,000 residents.
That extended to his years as a hockey coach and serving on his city council, which he called “impartial and neighborly services.”
Emmer said his public service career “escalated” when his wife Jacquie suggested he run for state representative in 2004 after noting in the newspaper that the seat was about to become vacant .
Emmer was a hockey coach and is notorious for using team analogies in Congress
He replied, ‘Why would I ever do that? We have seven children. I run my own business.’
Jacquie responded by saying, “Aren’t you the one saying if you don’t want to do anything about it, stop complaining?”
And Emmer rose to the challenge, won the state race, and more than 20 years later secured the number three leadership position in the U.S. House of Representatives.
While he joked that he could be retired right now or have a less demanding job, Emmer insisted that “service is important.”
Emmer says his leadership style is simply “about relationships,” which he learned growing up playing competitive sports and then working together in his personal and professional life.
“It all translates as a coach. The reason I always go back to that is because I’ve coached kids, mostly ages 11 and 12 to 18.”
He said despite the different maturity levels of the kids on the team he coached, “you had to get them all to believe in what you were selling and they had to strive to achieve something better for themselves.”
“It was amazing what some of these kids could do when they started to believe they could do things that had nothing to do with them. And I find that translates to life a lot, especially these days,” Emmer added, saying focusing on the positive can be powerful.
The Minnesota Republican said the new GOP team sworn into Congress in January was made up of independent-minded people from a variety of backgrounds.
Despite their differences, they all came to Capitol Hill to do their “best work,” so despite disagreements, you “work through it,” he added.
He used the analogy of a new team on the field to describe the new Republican majority in the House he must keep in line.
‘You start on the first day of training. They’re not going to do big things. But over time, when they start to have success and they understand, then you also get diversity,” Emmer said.
When asked by DailyMail.com how the GOP leadership team is continually underrated, something that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy regularly brings up, Emmer simply replied that success comes most naturally when individuals are not striving for glory.
“We’re practicing something here, that as long as you don’t care who takes credit, you’ll be successful,” Emmer said of his team’s performance, which included Representative Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., who serves as a deputy whip.
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Emmer says his leadership style is simply “about relationships,” which he learned growing up playing competitive sports and then working together in his personal and professional life.
Emmer is from Minnesota and his family enjoys outdoor activities
Republican whip Tom Emmer credits strong relationships and his experience as a hockey coach for the way he approaches his job as the No. 3 Republican in the House
He added that the office of the whip is “key” to getting GOP priorities across the finish line, but ultimately it doesn’t matter what his team does because they spread the credit for success.
“It’s amazing when other people take responsibility and take credit, they tend to work a lot harder,” Emmer continued.
A week after the House passed the negotiated debt ceiling deal, Emmer faced a new hurdle: 11 conservatives thwarted a typically mundane procedural vote to prevent the Biden administration from regulating gas stoves — in their latest standoff against the leadership.
“That was spontaneous,” Emmer said of the rebel group’s latest plan to vent their anger at Chairman Kevin McCarthy and the debt deal.
However, the GOP whip told DailyMail.com that he had long predicted growing pains within the new Republican majority.
“This team has been extremely successful and has done things in the first five months that people never thought possible,” he said.
Emmer is a husband and father of seven children, all of whom have left home
Emmer told DailyMail.com that “it’s amazing when other people take ownership and take credit, they tend to work a lot harder”
“But I said for the past five months… don’t expect us to always be successful. There will be a day when we will face adversity, there will be a day when we disagree. That’s what teams do. We are going through that period now.’
“We will come out the other side and be even stronger than we came in,” he said of the GOP rebels.
Still, some have already floated the idea of filing a motion to leave — where one member could call a vote where only a simple majority could oust McCarthy from the speakership.
Emmer also shot down the possibility that the disgruntled Republicans would use a maneuver to oust McCarthy from the speakership.
“I don’t think that’s fair,” he told DailyMail.com. “I know it’s interesting for everyone to speculate.”
McCarthy has the support. We’re going to work it out now, whatever the disagreement is. And we will come out the other side an even better team than we were when we started this.’