Congressman Pete Sessions Running For House Majority Whip

Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Congressman Pete Sessions of Dallas is running for House Majority Whip.

In a press release statement to members of the Republican team, Sessions said he is running for the position to "put our conference on the right path to fight for our conservative principles on behalf of the American people."

Sessions has served as chairman of the House Rules Committee since 2013.

In 2014, a spokeswoman for Sessions said he had no plans to seek the No. 3 job of Whip. That comment came after the Texas representative dropped his bid for Majority Leader.

In the letter sent to House Republicans, Sessions referred to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her retiring as Speaker of the House. He said, "Since winning back the majority, we have worked together to successfully stop President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid from ramming through their liberal agenda, but we still have much work to do to implement our conservative philosophy into law. We have the opportunity for bold conservative solutions, and we need a process that's driven by all members of the majority to accomplish that goal."

Sessions, an 18-year Washington veteran, isn't the first to enter the race for the third-ranking House position. He'll face off against current Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry, Oklahoma Representative Markwayne Mullin, and Florida Representative Dennis Ross.

(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)