“We can’t have this mindset of ‘burn the House down,’” said Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, another Republican with a bipartisan streak who plans to stick around next year. “We got to be a governing party when we’re in the majority, so we need people like Upton and folks like that. So other people have to step up.”

The jolt from Upton’s retirement is less about protecting his seat, as it will likely stay in GOP hands, and more about the question before the House minority leader: What will the exodus of his centrists, as well as other senior Republicans who don’t see negotiation as a dirty word, mean for him next year? Republicans say McCarthy, the minority leader and undisputed frontrunner for speaker if the House flips, has begun conversations with his leadership team and other lawmakers about how to wrangle the conference on a smattering of issues after the chamber flips.

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