Eric Cantor — looking composed and even unusually at ease — went before the press on Wednesday afternoon and announced he’s stepping down as majority leader, ending an 11-year run in Republican leadership. 
 
 The No. 2 House Republican called his defeat to an upstart primary challenger a “personal setback,” adding that his campaign team had done everything it could to win. 
 
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 The public appearance came after a closed-door speech to his colleagues earlier in which Cantor said that it “doesn’t have to be a bad day.” He was the recipient of several standing ovations. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: The GOP leadership scramble) 
 
 “Suffering is part of life, misery is a choice,” said Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the House, quoting a Holocaust survivor. “As conservatives, we aren’t just the party of no. We really do believe in a better way of life.” 
 
 Cantor then addressed the national press corps, one day after his stunning defeat, dismissing the argument that he had absented himself too frequently from his Seventh District in Richmond. 
 
 “I was in my district every week,” Cantor insisted emphatically. “There is a balance between holding a leadership position and serving constituents at home. Never was there a day that I did not put the constituents of the 7th district first and I will continue to do so.” 
 
 He endorsed California Rep. Kevin McCarthy to succeed him as majority leader. The election will be held June 19, and Cantor plans to leave his post by the end of July. He’ll stay in the House until December. 
 
 (PHOTOS: Scenes from Eric Cantor HQ) 
 
 Asked about his future plans, Cantor replied: “That’s probably between my wife and me.” 
 
 Addressing his colleagues earlier, Cantor’s words drove Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to tears. Leadership elections are slated for just eight days away on June 19, according to a source in the room. 
 
 “Winston Churchill once famously said: ‘Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts,’” Boehner said, according to a source in the room. “As one who suffered a tough defeat myself in 1998, I can tell you there’s plenty of wisdom in that statement. Eric, we salute you, and we thank you, and your amazing staff as well. We’re losing a leader, but you’ll never stop being our colleague and our friend.” 
 
 Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will seek the No. 2 job, which means two slots will open in the leadership hierarchy. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: 5 takeaways from Cantor shocker) 
 
 Cantor’s resignation as majority leader will be effective July 31. He’s not expected to leave Congress until his term ends in January. 
 
 Cantor, who came to Capitol Hill in 2001, lost his primary election Tuesday night to Dave Brat, an economics professor at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va. — a historic defeat for someone who was assumed to be the next speaker of the House. Just hours after his loss, Cantor’s GOP colleagues began rallying support for leadership races. 
 
 On Wednesday afternoon, McCarthy, the Californian who is now majority whip, held a meeting with his close allies to talk strategy about his run for leader. 
 
 McCarthy is starting to build establishment support within the GOP Conference. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was seen leaving McCarthy’s office on the first floor of the Capitol. And Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan said in an interview he would support McCarthy for majority leader. 
 
 Prior to a 1 p.m. House vote, a sizable group of young Republican lawmakers — including Rep. Tom Rooney of Florida — met to talk about who they would rally behind. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Vampire writer challenging Brat) 
 
 Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), a McCarthy rival who chairs the House Rules Committee, has also begun rallying support in calls and text messages. He began Tuesday night, just after Cantor lost, with a mass text message saying he wanted to serve as majority leader. 
 
 Sessions had ambitions to be whip following the Republican takeover of the House in 2010, but McCarthy had more support and the Texas Republican instead ended up as Rules chairman. 
 
 As of now, McCarthy is fielding calls, and speaking with many Republican lawmakers, but has not yet engaged in a formal campaign. His strategy will be to make his ascension appear to be the most logical choice for Republicans. He has the whip operation and piles of chits to win the race. ||||| After losing his primary to tea party challenger David Brat, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced he will be stepping down from House leadership at the end of July. (Associated Press) 
 
 After losing his primary to tea party challenger David Brat, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced he will be stepping down from House leadership at the end of July. (Associated Press) 
 
 Majority Leader Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.) will step down from his leadership post at the end of July, ending a swift rise through the ranks of national politics and upending a leadership team that has run the House since Republicans took control after the 2010 tea party wave election. 
 
 Less than 24 hours after losing a primary contest to a tea party-backed economist, Cantor announced Wednesday afternoon that he will resign as leader July 31, but keep his seat until his term ends in January. He said that House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) would make an “outstanding” successor. 
 
 “While I may have suffered a personal setback last night, I couldn’t be more optimistic about the future of this country,” Cantor told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “I’m honored that I’ve had the privilege of serving the people of Virginia’s 7th District.” 
 
 House Republicans plan to hold new leadership elections next Thursday, according to senior aides. In addition to McCarthy, several senior Republicans are mulling bids for top posts, so it wasn’t immediately clear which positions will be open next week. 
 
 (Live updates on the Cantor upset and its aftermath) 
 
 1 of 29 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × A look back at Eric Cantor’s time in Congress View Photos The House majority leader was ousted by his primary opponent in a stunning loss Tuesday. Caption The House majority leader was ousted by his primary opponent in a stunning loss Tuesday. Sept. 27, 2008 Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) holds up a statement by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi regarding a $700 billion financial rescue plan that failed to pass the House, as John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who was the House minority leader, listens. Mark Wilson/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) led a Wednesday afternoon meeting of the House Republican conference and thanked Cantor and his staff for their service. 
 
 “This is a speech I never expected to give,” Boehner said. He was in tears later as Cantor addressed his 232 Republican colleagues. 
 
 Cantor’s decision to leave his leadership post after losing Tuesday to economist Dave Brat came on a day that Republicans began scrambling to build support and fill the leadership vacuum. 
 
 McCarthy, the next in line after Boehner and Cantor, is preparing to run for majority leader, but will have competition from more conservative colleagues. 
 
 Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, began texting colleagues Tuesday night asking to speak with them about his bid for majority leader. His top advisers were actively positioning him for the race. 
 
 A confident Sessions predicted in an interview that he would beat McCarthy, arguing that his work to elect Republicans during the 2010 elections and his current leadership of powerful Rules Committee makes him ready to manage the House floor. 
 
 “I’ll be a majority leader who will be clear-headed about what we’re going to try to accomplish, putting more focus on what we’re trying to sell,” Sessions said, adding that he has a “strong and open” relationship with Boehner. “I know how to win.” 
 
 The large Texas Republican delegation, which represents 10 percent of the entire House Republican Conference, planned to meet later Wednesday with the possibility of producing a unified front for Sessions or Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, to be the Lone Star State’s favorite GOP son for a leadership slot. 
 
 It’s unclear when elections would be held to succeed Cantor, something that will be out of his control. Republicans aligned with more establishment figures privately expressed interest in shortening the race, for fear that a seven-week race until the end of July would be an ideological battlefield that tears the caucus apart. 
 
 Next week’s planned leadership elections will allow a transition period for Cantor and his staff to leave his post. Allies of the majority leader described the timing of July 31 as one based largely on helping his staff make their moves. 
 
 In addition to stepping down as majority leader, Cantor told colleagues Wednesday that he will not run as a write-in candidate in November. 
 
 Cantor returned to the Capitol Wednesday morning by sneaking into the building through a back door on the Senate side in hopes of avoiding reporters. He appeared stone-faced and tense, grimacing when asked by The Washington Post whether he would step down from his leadership post or resign from Congress. 
 
 Cantor, who has represented the Richmond suburbs since 2001, lost by 11 percentage points to Brat. The 51-year old had been considered the next generation’s GOP leader, who would take over for Boehner, 64,when he retired. In a caucus deeply divided between establishment Republicans and fire-breathing conservatives, these were the two who had shown some ability to keep order. 
 
 McCarthy hesitated even behind closed doors Wednesday morning to say he would run for majority leader, still stunned by the loss of his close friend, Cantor, according to aides not authorized to speak publicly about the unfolding leadership race. 
 
 McCarthy spent the morning in his spacious suite on the first floor of the Capitol, reaching out by telephone to more than 100 members, declining to go into details about his plans while hinting, with his appreciation for the encouragement, that he would run for majority leader. Later, he was seen huddling with several colleagues, including Reps. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.), Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Dennis A. Ross (R-Fla.), as he tries to shore up support and avoid competition. 
 
 A race between McCarthy and Sessions would revive a long-simmering rivalry. They both ran for whip in 2010, with McCarthy besting his older opponent. Ever since, Sessions, 59, has been eager to challenge McCarthy and is telling colleagues that an older, more conservative hand is needed near the top, aides said. 
 
 With McCarthy seeking to climb the leadership ranks, Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), the chief deputy whip, announced to his inner circle Wednesday morning that he will run for whip, the third-highest position in leadership, and throw his support behind McCarthy as majority leader. 
 
 Roskam told The Washington Post that he would not comment out of respect to Cantor. He was seen heading to a meeting with his allies to discuss his path ahead. 
 
 But Roskam is expected to face competition from Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who leads the conservative Republican Study Committee and is already privately whipping votes, and possibly Hensarling, according to aides familiar the jockeying. 
 
 In his conversations with colleagues, Scalise is making the case that he would serve as “a red state voice” in leadership ranks currently lacking a hardline conservative. Hensarling was seen huddling on the House floor Wednesday afternoon alongside House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), a key conservative broker. Earlier, he had huddled with Reps. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), a trio of renegade Republicans who rarely back leadership. 
 
 In a brief interview, Hensarling was coy, saying that he was still mulling a potential leadership run. But he was upbeat and smiling — somewhat unusual for the taciturn Republican — and enjoying the speculation. 
 
 Amid all the activity, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), currently the fourth-ranking Republican as chairman of the House Republican Conference, said Wednesday that she wouldn’t be seeking a higher position, meaning the leadership contest will focus on the majority leader and whip jobs. 
 
 Boehner, meanwhile, appeared unfazed by the developments. He chatted Wednesday on the floor with close friends and avoided areas of the floor where McCarthy and others were chatting with colleagues. On Tuesday night, he stuck to his usual routine by hanging out with close friends and aides at an Italian restaurant that he likes near Capitol Hill. 
 
 The fast-paced developments left rank-and-file members stunned as the 233-member caucus began splintering off behind favored candidates. 
 
 Several conservatives said they were eager to see Cantor replaced by a southern conservative. 
 
 “I just think that there is a geographical area of the country that has not been represented in leadership and I think that could be the determining factor in what happens,” said Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, (R-Ga.). 
 
 Asked to further clarify which area of the country he thought the next majority leader should hail from, Westmoreland replied: “Get a map.” 
 
 But Rep. Pat Tiberi, an Ohio Republican close to Boehner, pushed back on suggestions that the next leader needs to be from the south. 
 
 “Where does it say that in the constitution?” he quipped to reporters. 
 
 Tiberi cautioned that the tea party success in ousting Cantor doesn’t necessarily signal an oncoming insurgence of conservatives into the GOP House leadership. 
 
 “I’ve been around this business for 14 years and I can’t remember when there hasn’t been an anti-Washington feeling,” he said. 
 
 Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) suggested that the GOP leadership team should have more equal political representation. “We need to have some people on there from red states as opposed to having all of them from blue states,” he told reporters. 
 
 Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), a frequent critic of Boehner and Cantor, said he hopes to elect a leader with deeper roots in the conservative base of the party. 
 
 “There’s a widespread concern about the Republican establishment not listening to conservatives and so I think it had energized the tea party,” he said. “It’s certainly not dead as we found out last night.” 
 
 Other colleagues, still shellshocked by Tuesday’s stunning turn of events, just expressed condolences. 
 
 “I’m sorry my friend lost,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.). 
 
 Brat, meanwhile, appeared to struggle under fresh scrutiny of his upstart campaign. His campaign abruptly cancelled a scheduled news conference. 
 
 “Sorry, we’re kind of flying by the seat-of-our pants today,” a staffer said, explaining that the campaign decided to develop a media strategy before talking again to the press. 
 
 That decision came after Brat appeared on MSNBC to suggest that Cantor had lost touch with his district. Cantor “has not been present in the district,” he said. 
 
 “I was door-knocking, I know what was on the minds of the folks,” he added later. 
 
 But Brat appeared caught off guard by a barrage of policy questions. “I thought we were just going to chat today about the celebratory aspect,” he said. 
 
 Wesley Lowery, Jackie Kucinich and Sean Sullivan contributed to this report. ||||| The jockeying among Republicans to replace Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.) as House majority leader began Wednesday within hours of his stunning primary loss and escalated when he announced he would step down early from his leadership post. 
 
 Ambitious Republicans began working the phones, holding meetings and pigeonholing colleagues to line up support for their bids for two potential openings: majority leader and whip. 
 
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 While Cantor will stay on as majority leader through July 31, the election to replace him will take place on June 19, a week from Thursday, setting off a scramble among possible contenders. 
 
 The current majority whip, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), faced an immediate challenge from Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) in his expected bid to become majority leader, the second-ranking leadership job behind Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). 
 
 Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Sessions cited his experience as chairman of the Rules Committee and before that as the House GOP campaign chief as his qualifications for the job. 
 
 With the issue of immigration seen as a factor in Cantor’s defeat, the conservative Texan said he would focus on border security — an indication he would be unlikely to work with Democrats on a broader overhaul to provide citizenship to illegal immigrants. 
 
 “I think my strength is that I am a well-known conservative who will push for and want to have an agenda that I will go get the votes that is conservative, that is pro-business and solves the problems of the country,” Sessions said. “And I think that our focus on that will need to start with the border.” 
 
 Yet Sessions moved so quickly that he may have irritated some members, who reported receiving a text message from him 20 minutes after Cantor’s defeat became official. 
 
 “How about waiting until the body's at the morgue?” one member said. 
 
 McCarthy opted to wait until Cantor had made his decision before campaigning to be the next majority leader, according to a source who was in McCarthy's office late Tuesday night. 
 
 “McCarthy said ‘We're not doing anything until Eric does what Eric's going to do, we're going to give him room to make his decision,’” the source told The Hill. 
 
 In announcing his decision to step down, Cantor made clear that McCarthy would have his full support if he chooses to run for majority leader. 
 
 The fast election could benefit McCarthy, a fellow GOP “Young Gun” who has spent years building up his base of support within the conference. Lawmakers also said they did not want a drawn-out election to distract from their agenda and leave time for outside conservative groups to try to influence the outcome. 
 
 Boehner is officially neutral, spokesman Michael Steel said. 
 
 “We have important work to do and need to get the new leadership team in place as soon as possible,” he said. “And he has not endorsed anyone in any race.” 
 
 Inside the meeting where Cantor announced his decision, Boehner made clear that he would run for Speaker again in the 114th Congress, lawmakers said. 
 
 Another Texas conservative, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, was also considering a bid for majority leader. Currently chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Hensarling served in the leadership until 2013 but has frequently voted against Boehner and Cantor in the year-and-a-half since he left. 
 
 Hensarling has played coy in recent weeks when asked whether he might challenge or seek to succeed Boehner. 
 
 “I am humbled by the many people who have approached me about serving our Republican Conference in a different capacity in the future,” he 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.” 
 
 Hensarling would have the support of Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), a vocal second-term conservative who is gunning to be chairman of the Republican Study Committee in the next Congress. 
 
 If McCarthy succeeds in the election to replace Cantor, his position would open up and the race for that potential post also heated up: Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) moved rapidly to challenge Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), the chief deputy whip who has been eyeing the spot for months. 
 
 “He’s in for the whip’s race,” a source close to Roskam said on Wednesday. 
 
 Scalise is chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, and a GOP aide said on Wednesday that as soon as Cantor’s loss became official, he began receiving calls from colleagues urging him to run for majority whip. 
 
 “Obviously, no one saw Leader Cantor losing yesterday,” the aide said. “It was a tectonic shift that caught everyone off guard.” 
 
 Scalise had been laying the groundwork for the race in the event Boehner decided to retire at year’s end, but he is now prepared to run whenever the opening occurs. 
 
 “Regardless of Leader Cantor’s position, he’s ready to go,” the aide said. 
 
 Rep. Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio), a close Boehner ally, told reporters that the Texas GOP delegation was meeting to discuss leadership possibilities, with both Sessions and Hensarling being discussed as potential Cantor replacements. 
 
 Tiberi declined to endorse any candidates, but made it clear he was a fan of McCarthy and Roskam and that they had strong chances to move up the leadership pecking order. 
 
 “They both have a very successful tenure in their positions in leadership, and I think they have a lot of support within the conference generally speaking for the job that they’ve done,” Tiberi said. 
 
 If McCarthy loses his bid to become majority leader, the position of whip would not open up. 
 
 Amid the jockeying, the fourth-ranking Republican, Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), announced Wednesday that she would stay put rather than seek a promotion. 
 
 “After much encouragement from my colleagues, conversations with my family, and many prayers, I have decided to remain conference chair at this time,” said McMorris Rodgers, the highest-ranking Republican woman. 
 
 Also staying out of the races will be Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the House Budget chief and 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee. 
 
 “I’m not interested,” he told reporters. 
 
 Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), another respected conservative and former RSC chairman, also told The Hill he did not plan to run for any of the open positions. 
 
 The emerging battles will pit establishment Republicans close to Boehner like McCarthy and Roskam against conservatives likely to push the party further to the right. 
 
 Lawmakers frustrated with the current leadership have spoken for months about the need to have more representation at the top from members who hail from deeply Republican states. Boehner, Cantor, McCarthy and McMorris Rodgers all represent states that President Obama carried in the last two presidential elections. 
 
 “I think that when all of the key leaders are from blue and purple states, and the rank and file are from red states, it creates some tension, or miscommunications, or misunderstandings that occur in our conference right now,” Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said. “So I am hopeful that somewhere in the mix of new leadership there will be a strong red state advocate who is more reflective of the type of Republican that I represent.” 
 
 —This story was updated at 6:29 p.m. 
 
 Molly K. Hooper, Bernie Becker, Erik Wasson, Peter Schroeder and Cristina Marcos contributed.
– Eric Cantor confirmed this afternoon that he won't be launching a long-shot bid to remain in Congress with a write-in candidacy in Virginia's general election. He told his GOP colleagues behind closed doors that he will serve out his term but will step down as majority leader at the end of next month. “It doesn't have to be a bad day," he said at the GOP meeting, reports Politico. "Suffering is part of life, misery is a choice." He reiterated his decision at a news conference later, reports the Washington Post. “While I may have suffered a personal setback last night, I couldn’t be more optimistic about the future of this country,” Cantor said. So what's next for him? "That's probably between my wife and me," he said. Meanwhile, the House will have elections to pick a new majority leader on June 19, with the leading candidates being majority whip Kevin McCarthy of California and Pete Sessions of Texas. Sessions may have rankled colleagues by waiting only 20 minutes after Cantor's defeat was announced to start pushing his own candidacy, reports the Hill. (Click to read about the candidate who stunned Cantor in the primary, David Bratt.)