Robert Boland: Chief of staff, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.)

The historically slim House Republican majority means that Robert Boland, chief of staff to House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), leads one of the toughest operations in the GOP: keeping the notoriously fractious conference together.

“The House of Representatives now is kind of a Senate, where everybody’s voice matters, everybody has an opinion, and everybody has an ability to block legislation,” Boland said.

Emmer and his team have been deeply involved in just about every major negotiation since Republicans took the House majority in 2023, from the drawn-out election of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to the debt limit negotiations in 2023 to government shutdown deadlines and more.

That culminated in pushing the “One Big Beautiful Bill” through multiple dramatic floor votes through the first half of the year, handing President Trump what could be the biggest legislative achievement of his second term.

The success of the whip team, Boland said, is based on outreach and respect.

“We’ve never lied to a member. I don’t think you’ll find a member that we’ve ever disrespected. Even people that aren’t necessarily fans of us, we try very hard to bring them in,” Boland said.

Boland makes an effort to meet with the chief of staff for every Republican member in the House every year. And Emmer’s office puts great care into knowing what makes every GOP member tick — whether it be policy or even their favorite sauce at a group dinner.

Having worked for Emmer for 12 years, including at the National Republican Congressional Committee for two cycles, Boland has seen most every member at their happiest, angriest, and everything in between.

“Tom is kind of the coach, and he sets the tone of that. From my end, it’s to implement the culture of a team,” Boland said.

Having started off as a congressional intern and worked numerous types of jobs in an office, Boland makes it a point to reach out to new staff members on the whip team to give them ideas and support.

Many conflicts inside congressional offices stem from staff not understanding what the member of Congress wants, but Boland said he and Emmer have always been very candid with each other. 

“It’s a tough job. You have to have tough conversations. But through that, we’ve just had the ability to develop more patience, and just work together and get better as a team,” Boland said.