Senate Republicans are pushing to delay their party's leadership elections, scheduled for the following week, after a bruising defeat in the midterms. Sen. Ron Johnson has collected the five signatures he needs from GOP colleagues to force a conference meeting, arguing that senators should talk through the results before casting votes to keep John Thune and the rest of the leadership team in place.
Johnson's effort, first detailed by The Hill, calls the midterm outcome “a stunning defeat” for Republicans that needs to be more carefully discussed and examined before voting to re-elect Thune and other GOP leaders. He wants to delay holding any leadership elections until all senators have had a chance to hear from leadership candidates, according to the same report.
The push comes just three days after Republicans suffered their midterm defeat on November 3, and it could open the door to a potential challenge against Thune, according to Bloomberg. Still, no senator has publicly expressed interest in actually running against him, the station's earlier report notes.
Conflicting Reports on Vote Timing
Exactly when the vote was supposed to happen is murky. The Hill reported the Senate Republican Conference was scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday to vote on its new leadership team, while the Washington Examiner reported that Johnson's proposed delay could force a conference-wide meeting before Tuesday afternoon's planned secret-ballot vote. The two accounts do not agree on the timing, and the dossier does not resolve the discrepancy.
Florida Sen. Rick Scott has thrown his support behind Johnson's push for a discussion before any vote takes place. “What Ron's proposing, which I completely agree with, is let's sit down and decide what we're going to do differently,” Scott told Florida Politics. Scott, who has twice sought Senate GOP leadership posts himself, said Republicans need a plan first.
Scott Says He Won't Run Again Under Current Timeline
Scott made clear he does not intend to mount another leadership bid if the vote proceeds on its original schedule. “I don't want to run again. I've run twice,” Scott said, according to the same Florida Politics account. He challenged Mitch McConnell for the top Senate GOP post in 2022 and came up short on the first ballot after his 2024 re-election, per that outlet's reporting.
This is not the first time Senate Republicans have tried to hit pause on a leadership contest following a disappointing election. Conservatives attempted a similar delay after the 2024 election, but as The Hill notes, “that effort wasn't successful.”
A Steep Midterm Setback
The scale of the midterm losses helps explain the urgency behind Johnson's request. Democrats have so far flipped seven GOP-held Senate seats, while races in Alaska and Mississippi remained too close to call, according to the Washington Examiner. That outlet reported Democrats are looking at a Senate majority of at least 54 seats that could expand to 56, a shift that has rattled GOP ranks and fueled calls for a broader conversation about strategy before any leadership votes move forward.
