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Inland Empire GOP Rep. Jay Obernolte gets a big promotion

April 16, 2026

Rep. Jay Obernolte now sits a little higher atop Capitol Hill.

A fifth-year lawmaker, Obernolte, R-Hesperia, was chosen Wednesday, April 15, to chair the House Republican Policy Committee, an upper-tier post in the GOP’s leadership hierarchy.

“I’m just really deeply honored that my colleagues in Congress would entrust me with a leadership position, and I’m finding it very humbling that so many of my colleagues have supported me,” Obernolte said Wednesday afternoon.

A policy committee member for five years, Obernolte said he was interested in running for chair because he is “deeply committed” to the panel’s work.

“I think that our role as members of Congress should be driven by policy and not by politics,” he said. “That’s why I’m so passionate about leading a body that is dedicated to not only creating good policy, but seeing it … passed into law.”

Obernolte was elected to the role by voice vote at a candidate policy forum after securing endorsements from senior Republicans, including the previous committee chair, POLITICO reported Wednesday.

His only opponent, New York Republican Claudia Tenney, dropped out the day before, POLITICO added.

A former state lawmaker and Big Bear Lake mayor, Obernolte represents a district that currently includes Big Bear Lake, Hesperia, communities in San Bernardino County’s High Desert and parts of Colton, Highland, Loma Linda, Redlands and San Bernardino.

Aside from inheriting parts of far eastern Riverside County, Obernolte’s district will remain largely unchanged once the new congressional maps approved by voters through Proposition 50 take effect.

Like his colleagues, Obernolte is up for reelection this year.

His district, which President Donald Trump won by 17 percentage points in 2024, is considered to be a safe Republican seat.

Obernolte’s new title means the Inland Empire now has two high-ranking lawmakers in its congressional delegation. By chairing the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino, is the No. 3 House Democrat.

Established in 1949, the GOP policy committee, which has a Democratic counterpart, “serves as an advisory committee to House Republicans and provides a forum for Republican Members to discuss legislative proposals and current topics before the House,” its website states.

“The committee produces issue backgrounders and conservative policy solutions to the House Republican Conference.”

The policy committee chair “is influential in and of itself in shaping policy proposals. The policy conference chair will be ‘in the room where it happens,’ to quote the musical ‘Hamilton,’” Marcia Godwin, a professor of public administration at the University of La Verne, said via email.

Obernolte’s selection, she said, “is also a sign of the respect that other members have for Rep. Obernolte’s style and approach. There can be a lot of behind-the-scenes work, but it can be a pathway for moving up even further in the leadership or in helping to steer resources to a member’s district.”

Becoming the chair is “a very important step for Obernolte,” Dan Schnur, a political analyst and professor at several California universities, said via email.

“It shows the high regard that his colleagues and party leadership has for him and it positions him for other higher leadership positions in the future. Most voters won’t know or care about this, but it is a very valuable opportunity for him.”

Obernolte’s new job is also good news for the Inland Empire, Godwin said.

“IE issues are more likely to become part of the agenda and the chair is highly influential in getting proposals enacted,” she said.

“In my view, a successful policy chair needs to be in a safe seat but also a consensus builder. Aguilar and Obernolte have experience working across the aisle and their peers recognize them as also being able to bridge gaps within their own parties.”

Obernolte said his committee will “be focused on all of the major pieces of policy legislation that are going to come up in the next few years,” including the federal debt ceiling that has been the subject of partisan brinkmanship.

Obernolte also is deeply invested in creating a federal framework for regulating artificial intelligence.

“Hopefully we’ll have big news to announce on that” in the next couple of weeks, he said Wednesday.

Orange County Register

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Inland Empire GOP Rep. Jay Obernolte gets a big promotion

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