After days of finger-pointing over the Republican election defeats, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell won a secret vote leadership election, putting him on track to become the longest-serving Senate party leader in US history.
Rick Scott of Florida, McConnell’s first rival in 15 years as leader of his conference, was defeated.
Two senators claim that McConnell won the leadership vote 37-10-1. Senator one cast a present vote.
After a lengthy and heated meeting on Tuesday, the first for the Republican conference since the midterm elections, Scott informed reporters he intended to challenge McConnell for the leadership position.
According to the Florida Republican, “I’m running for leader.” “I don’t like the way things are right now, so I think we should have a choice,” the speaker said.
“I still think we should delay the election,” he continued.
Scott and McConnell have been at odds all year long on the campaign’s narrative, perspective, and resource allocation. The two have clashed on a number of issues, including the calibre of their respective candidates, whether to participate in GOP primaries, whether to forward an agenda or keep President Joe Biden in the spotlight, and where to compete.
The Senate Republicans were upset with the results of the 2022 elections, which was highlighted by Scott’s proposal for a delay in the leadership elections until after the Georgia runoff and a few other conservative senators. Despite 16 GOP senators voting to postpone the GOP leadership elections, the move to delay the vote during the closed-door meeting was unsuccessful, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
And even though Scott has no chance of becoming leader, his announcement is viewed as a vote of no confidence. He will be McConnell’s first rival during his tenure as GOP leader.
Scott and McConnell exchanged sharp jabs during their tense back-and-forth during the closed-door hearing with their Republican counterparts.
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri described the discussion to reporters as follows: “Sen. Scott disagrees with the approach that Mitch has taken in this election and for the last couple of years, and he made that clear and Sen. McConnell criticised Sen. Scott’s management of the NRSC.”
After the closed-door meeting on Tuesday, Texas senator John Cornyn said he was eager to move over the differences with his Republican colleagues and hold the leadership elections.
He declared that he thought Republicans should concentrate on supporting Herschel Walker, the nominee for the Georgia Senate, in his runoff election against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock on December 6.
The best way, in my opinion, is to put this behind us, Cornyn said AWN. “Because you guys are going to be writing about it for the next three weeks and it will divert our attention away from the Georgia runoff, which I think should be our undivided focus,” he said.