Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is now the No. 4 Republican in the U.S. Senate.
Capito, who was previously the No. 5 Senate Republican, won an uncontested race Wednesday as GOP senators voted to choose their next leadership team.
She will now serve as Senate GOP Policy Committee chair.
“With me leading the policy issues and all of us working together, we’re going to have a united voice,” Capito said during a press conference.
The Senate created Democratic and Republican Policy Committees in 1947. Each committee is responsible for formulating legislative policy goals for its party and, in conjunction with legislative committee chairs and party leaders, scheduling floor action on bills during a session.
Capito offered congratulations to Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who was elected Senate majority leader.
“He will be a strong voice, as he has been in the past as the whip,” she said. “I look forward to serving with him and with all our leadership team.”
The election marked the dawning of a “new day in the Senate and a new day in America,” Thune said.
“The American people have loudly rejected the failed policies of the Biden-Harris-Schumer agenda,” he said. “This Republican team is united. We are on one team. We’re excited to reclaim the majority and begin to work with our colleagues in the House to enact President Trump’s agenda.”
There was a “really strong, health discussion” prior to Thune’s election, Capito said.
“We’ve all come out united and friends,” she said. “One of the people who was in our discussion, although he didn’t say anything, his presence was very much felt. That is the Vice President-elect J.D. Vance.”
Capito also reflected on the Nov. 5 general election and what its results say about the issues voters care about most.
“It is literally (about) the American family — the mom and the dad, the grandmother, whoever it is — going to the grocery store,” she said. “We do it all the time, every week, and all of us could see the escalating costs of something so very basic to us, just the cost of food.”