House Majority Whip Steve Scalise has been mentioned as a possible replacement to replace outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan, but he said Thursday he won't run against House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy for the key spot.
"I've never run against Kevin and wouldn't run against Kevin," Scalise told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
"We're good friends."
Further, the Louisiana Republican said, he has a job to do now as the House whip, and a lot more that needs done.
"I met with President [Donald] Trump last night at the White House with the rest of our leadership team, talking about all the things we want to get done the rest of this year, building on the tax cut bill we passed that's having a positive impact on the economy," said Scalise.
However, he stressed, this is not the time to worry about future roles in the House, particularly with the threat that Democrats could regain control in this year's midterm elections.
"If we're worried what we might want to be in eight months from now, first of all, we need to stay focused on getting our job done and keeping the majority," Scalise said. "If we lose focus of that, Nancy Pelosi will be speaker. We know how devastating that would be for our country. We can't let them happen."
Both McCarthy and Scalise, as House leaders, attended Wednesday night's White House meeting, and Scalise noted that the main topic was about bills they want to see move from the House and through the Senate.
"We passed good bills in the house to address many of the problems facing our country domestically and in foreign policy," he said. "We want to see the agenda move to president trump's desk and talking about how to get that done last night."
Scalise also said he does not think Ryan's announcement will change the landscape of the House, even though the liberal base has been "incredibly motivated in a negative way.'
"They don't like president trump and his agenda because he is doing what he said he promised he would do, which is very refreshing to people like me," said Scalise. "If you're a liberal Bernie Sanders supporter you might not agree with it but the rest of the country likes it but seeing more money in their paychecks."
Scalise said he also believes people know what's at stake if Republicans lose the house.
"Do we want to keep moving forward with a positive agenda or do they want to go back to higher taxes which Nancy Pelosi said she would reinstate?" said Scalise. "Paul Ryan has broken records of fundraising. It will take a lot of money to push back and make sure we hold the House but we're doing the work and raising the money. Candidates are out there and incumbents in the swing districts are doing the things they need to do back home to continue to move in a positive agenda getting the economy on track. I think economic growth, people seeing more money in their paychecks and more jobs being created will be the driving factor in the November election, which works well for us as House Republicans."