WASHINGTON (AP) – Sen. Mitch McConnell was re-elected as Republican leader on Wednesday, fending off a challenge from Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the Senate GOP’s campaign manager criticized after a disappointing performance in the midterm that kept the Senate in control with the Democrats.
McConnell, of Kentucky, easily repelled Scott’s challenge in the first attempt to oust him after many years as GOP leader. The vote was 37 to 10, the senators said, with one other senator voting present. McConnell is poised to become the Senate’s longest-serving leader when the new Congress convenes next year.
“I’m not going anywhere,” McConnell said after the nearly four-hour closed-door meeting. He said he was “very proud” of the result, but acknowledged the work in advance. “I think everyone in our conference agrees that we want to give it our best shot.”
At a luncheon of GOP senators on Tuesday, Scott and McConnell had exchanged what their colleagues said were “frank” and “lively” barbs. The 10 Republican senators who joined Wednesday’s revolt against McConnell and voted for Scott included some of the most conservative figures aligned with former President Donald Trump.
“Why do I think he won?” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., among McConnell’s detractors. “Because the conference didn’t want to change course.”
The unrest in the Senate GOP resembles the turmoil among House Republicans after the midterm elections left the party divided over Trump’s grip on the party. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy won the nomination of his colleagues to run for speaker of the House, with Republicans taking a majority in the House on Wednesday, but he faces a stiff opposition from a core group of right-wing Republicans who are unconvinced of his leadership.
Scott said in a statement that while “the results of today’s election were not what we expected, this is far from the end of our fight to make Washington work.”
Retreating to the Capitol’s Old Senate for the private vote, senators first considered, then rejected, a motion by a Scott ally, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, to delay leadership votes until after the second round of the December 6 election in Georgia. between Republican Herschel Walker and incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock that will determine the final makeup of the Senate.
Cruz said it was a “cordial debate, but a serious discussion” about how minority Republicans can work effectively.
In all, 48 new and returning GOP senators voted. Retiring Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska missed the vote to go home after his office said his wife was recovering from a non-threatening seizure.
Senators also elected the other GOP leadership positions. McConnell’s top spots were steady, with Sen. John Thune, RSD, as GOP whip and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., in third place as GOP conference chairman. Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines was elected to take over Scott’s campaign operation.
The challenge from Scott, who was urged by Trump to take on McConnell, escalated a long-running dispute between Scott, who led the Senate Republican’s campaign arm this year, and McConnell over the approach of party to try to regain the majority of the Senate.
Restless conservatives in the chamber have criticized McConnell’s handling of the election, as well as his iron grip on the Senate Republican caucus.
Trump has been pushing for the party to oust McConnell since the Senate leader delivered a scathing speech blaming then-President Trump for the Jan. 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol.
McConnell has pushed back hard, blaming the Republicans’ problems on what he has called the “quality of the candidates” after many of his favorite candidates were replaced by Trump-backed Republicans on the ballot.
McConnell said Republicans ran the kind of candidates that “scared” independent and moderate voters.
Those voters felt that “we weren’t dealing with the issues in a responsible way and were spending too much time in negativity, attacks and chaos,” McConnell said earlier this week. “They were scared.”
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who led the effort with Cruz to postpone the election, spoke at some point Wednesday as did ally Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, according to people familiar with the private meeting. The question I asked the two leading candidates is, “What issues are we willing to fight on,” Cruz said.
Among the many reasons Scott listed for mounting a challenge is that Republicans had compromised too much with Democrats in the last Congress, producing bills that President Joe Biden has counted as successes and that Democrats introduced in the 2022 elections.
The feud between Scott and McConnell has been brewing for months and boiled over as election results showed there would be no Republican Senate wave, as Scott predicted, according to GOP strategists. ‘high level that they were not authorized to discuss internal matters on their behalf and insisted. about anonymity
The feud began shortly after Scott took over the party committee after the 2020 election. Many in the party saw his ascension as an effort to build his national political profile and donor network before a possible presidential bid in 2024. Some took issue with the committee’s promotional materials that weighed heavily on Scott’s own biography, while focusing less on the candidates running for office.
Then came Scott’s release of an 11-point plan earlier this year, which called for modest tax increases for many of the lowest-paid Americans, while opening the door to cuts to Security Social Security and Medicare, which McConnell quickly repudiated even as he refused to do so. offer your own agenda.
The fight was fueled in part by frayed confidence in Scott’s leadership, as well as the committee’s poor finances, which was $20 million in debt, according to a Republican consultant.
Democrats have postponed their midterm elections until after Thanksgiving.
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