A group of Senate Republicans is pushing to pump the brakes on John Thune’s reelection as GOP leader, arguing the party needs to reckon with its midterm losses before choosing who will lead it.
Seven Republican senators are pressing to postpone the conference’s leadership elections, according to Axios. The vote was scheduled for Tuesday morning in the Old Senate Chamber, the Washington Times reported.
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is spearheading the effort and has gathered the five signatures needed under conference rules to request a meeting of the full Republican conference. Sens. Ted Budd of North Carolina, Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah and John Kennedy of Louisiana signed his letter, according to Axios.
Two other Republicans, Sens. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania and Jim Banks of Indiana, backed a delay in separate statements without adding their names to the letter, Bloomberg reported.
In the letter, addressed to Republican Conference Chair Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Johnson called last Tuesday’s results a stunning defeat. He argued that holding leadership elections without a thorough discussion of how the candidates plan to lead would amount to political malpractice.
“If you hold the election, I’ll leave the room,” Johnson told the Washington Examiner on Monday.
Johnson also posted on X that a loss of this size demands change and that he would not take part in business as usual.
The Wisconsin Republican has argued that the party is moving far too fast. He has noted that, historically, leadership elections took place roughly 40 days after an election, but that since 2006 the gap has shrunk to about nine days. He wants a full postmortem on what went wrong before the conference installs its leadership team.
Banks echoed that view, saying Republicans need to elect their Senate leadership but that doing it this soon would be a mistake. He urged the party to confront its failures first. McCormick had made a similar call a day earlier.
The decision on whether to hold off rests with Cotton, according to Axios.
Thune is running unopposed and has left the question of a delay up to his colleagues, the Washington Times reported. He said he is not sure postponing the vote would accomplish anything. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming is expected to seek reelection as the conference’s No. 2 Republican.
Even Johnson has acknowledged that Thune is unlikely to face a challenge. Asked whether anyone would run against him, Johnson replied, “Who would want the job?”
The push faces an uphill climb. Senate Republicans turned back a similar effort led by Johnson in 2022 to delay that year’s leadership elections, and with the conference already set to meet Tuesday morning, little time remained to engineer a postponement.
The fight comes after a bruising election for Republicans, who lost control of both chambers of Congress. Thune, who currently serves as majority leader, is set to become minority leader when Democrats take over the Senate in January.
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