Twelve hours after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s stunning primary defeat the leadership scramble is already shifting into high gear. 
 
 House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions is making an aggressive play for the No. 2 spot. The Texas Republican has been calling and emailing lawmakers seeking support for a potential bid to replace Cantor, according to several sources. 
 
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 House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, the chamber’s No. 3 Republican, has also been speaking with a lot of members. But McCarthy will not engage in a formal campaign until Cantor makes a decision about whether he will stay in leadership for the duration of his term. 
 
 (WATCH: Inside Cantor's stunning loss) 
 
 Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) and Jeb Hensarling (Texas) are all considered potential contenders for the majority leader position. 
 
 ”I am humbled by the many people who have approached me about serving our Republican Conference in a different capacity in the future,” Hensarling said. “There are many ways to advance the causes of freedom and free enterprise, and I am prayerfully considering the best way I can serve in those efforts.” 
 
 Cantor arrived at the Capitol early Wednesday morning and Republican leadership was scheduled to huddle early today. Cantor’s fate will dominate what will happen on the floor and inside the GOP Conference over the next days and weeks. 
 
 (Full results from Virginia) 
 
 Republicans have been privately jockeying for a seat at the leadership table for months. The positioning wasn’t going to explode into the public until after the midterms but Cantor’s shocking primary loss on Tuesday upended that timetable. 
 
 Several GOP sources said that conservative lawmakers will ask for Cantor to step down immediately as majority leader and that they want to have the leadership battle sooner rather than later. There is no discussion of a challenge to Speaker John Boehner, who has been the subject of speculation about whether he will retire after the election or in the next Congress. 
 
 So far, Cantor has not made an announcement about whether he plans to stay in leadership or step down. Cantor is planning to meet with his unofficial “kitchen cabinet” of closest allies in the House later on Wednesday, according to GOP sources. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: The GOP leadership scramble) 
 
 House Republican Conference Chairman Steve Scalise and Illinois Rep. Peter Roskam have all but openly declared they are running for the whip slot. Both lawmakers have been reaching out to people, but have not formally announced bids for the slot. 
 
 McMorris Rodgers has signaled interest to her allies in both the majority leader and whip slot. She said she was “talking to a lot of people.” But sources close to her added that she has not yet made a decision to run for majority leader or whip. 
 
 Other potential whips include Sessions and Rep. Tom Price (Ga.). 
 
 If leadership races happen in the near term, it could play well for McCarthy and Roskam, who both already have whip teams in place and have been working to curry favor with lawmakers for months. ||||| Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) ended his bid to become the next House majority leader on Thursday night, leaving Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as the only candidate to replace Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who was defeated in a historic primary loss on Tuesday. 
 
 "After thoughtful consideration and discussion with my colleagues, I have made the decision to not continue my run for House majority leader," Sessions said in a statement. 
 
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 "Today, it became obvious to me that the measures necessary to run a successful campaign would have created unnecessary and painful division within our party. At this critical time, we must remain unified as a Republican conference. As always, I stand ready and willing to work with our team to advance the conservative agenda that the American people demand and deserve." 
 
 Sessions is the House Rules Committee chairman and former head of the House GOP campaign committee. 
 
 Barring a late, new challenger, McCarthy will become the second-ranking House Republican after the leadership election scheduled for June 19. 
 
 While Sessions began seeking support within minutes of Cantor's surprise loss, he could not overcome the advantage that McCarthy had built up as the party's chief vote counter and top fund-raiser. 
 
 He also struggled to unify the conference's right flank. Many conservatives wanted another Texan, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, to seek the post, but he decided Thursday morning to stay out of the race. And as the Texas delegation deliberated over which member to support, McCarthy moved aggressively behind the scenes to lock down support. 
 
 McCarthy was further aided by Speaker John Boehner's (Ohio) decision to schedule the secret ballot election just over a week after Cantor's announcement that he would step down. The quick turnaround left little time for Sessions or other challengers to build enough support to take out McCarthy. Cantor will stay on as majority leader until July 31 to provide a transition. 
 
 Three other top conservatives, Reps. Paul Ryan (Wis.), Tom Price (Ga.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio), have also passed on the race. 
 
 Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) is taking a look at challenging McCarthy, and a source familiar with his thinking said he's "getting a lot of encouragement from members." The conservative is well regarded by his fellow members of the 2010 GOP class, but it's not clear whether he could seriously threaten McCarthy. 
 
 With McCarthy likely to become majority leader, the more competitive leadership election became the race to replace him as whip. 
 
 That race pits McCarthy's chief deputy, Rep. Peter Roskam (Ill.), against the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, Rep. Steve Scalise (La.), and another conservative, Rep. Marlin Stutzman (Ind.), who surprised many members with his entry on Thursday morning. 
 
 — This story was updated at 9:39 p.m.
– Now that majority leader Eric Cantor is out of the running for the next Congress, who will take his place in the GOP leadership? Politico identifies a number of potential frontrunners, starting with current majority whip Kevin McCarthy of California, who is pretty much guaranteed to seek Cantor's old job, party insiders say. House rules committee chair Pete Sessions of Texas is already looking for allies in a bid to replace Cantor, Politico reports. But Texas' Jeb Hensarling, Ohio's Jim Jordan, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington could offer a conservative-wing challenge. If McCarthy leaves the whip position, get ready for another battle—perhaps between McMorris Rodgers, Pete Roskam of Illinois, and Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who has already officially decided to seek the post following colleagues' urging, Politico notes. Conservatives want Cantor to step down now, paving the way to a leadership debate soon. In the coming days, "you’re going to start hearing that people are seriously considering a run. It will be blown up," says an ex-party leadership staffer. "By the end of the week, we’re going to see who is interested and who is not."