WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. On Wednesday, Mitch McConnell was re-elected as the Republican leader, overturning the senator’s challenge.Florida Senate GOP campaign chief Rick Scott under fire after disappointing performance in midterms Keep Democrats in control of the Senate.
McConnell of Kentucky easily fended off Scott’s challenge, his first attempt after years as Republican leader. The vote was 37 to 10, with one other senator present, the senators said. When the new Congress convenes next year, McConnell is expected to be the longest-serving leader in the Senate.
“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 work ahead. “I think everyone in our meeting agreed that we wanted to do our best.”
At a luncheon of Republican senators on Tuesday, Scott and McConnell exchanged what colleagues called “candid” and “lively” barbs. The 10 Republican senators who joined Wednesday to oppose McConnell and vote for Scott include some of the most conservative figures and those aligned with former President Donald Trump.
“Why do I think he won?” the senator said. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, is one of McConnell’s critics. “Because the meeting didn’t want to change course.”
The turmoil in the Senate GOP is similar to the turmoil among House Republicans after midterm elections that split the party over Trump’s control of the party.House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy wins nomination From colleagues running for speaker of the House of Representatives, Republicans captured a majority in the House on Wednesday, But he faces strong opposition from core right-wing Republicans who do not believe in his leadership.
Scott said in a statement that while “today’s election results were not what we had hoped for, our fight to make Washington work is far from over.”
Retreating to the old Senate chamber at the Capitol for a private vote, senators considered first and then rejected a motion from Republican senators, Scott’s allies. Ted Cruz of Texas delayed the leadership vote until after Dec. 12. In the runoff election in Georgia on the 6th, Republican Herschel Walker and the incumbent Democratic senator. Raphael Warnock will decide the final makeup of the Senate.
Cruz said it was an “intimate but serious discussion” about how minority Republicans can work effectively.
A total of 48 new and returning Republican senators voted. Retiring Sen. Ben Sass of Nebraska missed the vote to go home after his office said his wife was recovering from a non-threatening seizure.
Senators have also elected to other Republican leadership positions. McConnell’s top job ranking remains steady, Sen. John Thune, RS.D., as Republican Whip, and Senator. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, was No. 1. 3 points as Republican conference chair. Sen. Steve Daines, a Montana Republican, was picked to succeed Scott’s campaign.
Trump urged Scott to confront McConnell, and Scott’s challenge intensifies a long-simmering feud between Scott, who leads the Senate GOP campaign arm this year, and McConnell as the party tries to regain the Senate majority.
Die-hard conservatives in the Senate have slammed McConnell for his handling of the election and his iron-fisted control of the Senate Republican caucus.
Since Senate leaders delivered harsh speeches blaming then-President Trump for the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.
After many of his favorite candidates were displaced on the ballot by Trump-backed Republicans, McConnell pushed back, blaming the GOP’s problems on what he called “candidate quality.”
McConnell said the type of candidate Republicans are putting forward “scares” independent and moderate voters.
Those voters felt that “we’re not dealing with issues in a responsible way, that we’re spending too much time on negativity, aggression and confusion,” McConnell said earlier this week. “They’re scared.”
Mori. Wisconsin Rep. Ron Johnson, who worked with Cruz to delay the election, spoke for a while on Wednesday, as did his ally Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, according to a person familiar with the private meeting. The question I put to the two leadership candidates is, ‘What issues are we willing to fight on,'” Cruz said.
One of the many reasons Scott listed for launching the challenge was that Republicans compromised too much with Democrats in the last Congress — creating legislation that President Joe Biden deemed a success that Democrats won in the 2022 election. Keep campaigning.
The feud between Scott and McConnell has been seeping for months and is reaching a boiling point as the election results gradually indicate that there will not be a wave of Republicans entering the Senate that Scott predicted, according to Advanced Republican Strategies. The experts said they were not authorized to discuss internal issues by name and insisted on anonymity.
The feud began shortly after Scott took over the party committee following the 2020 election. Many in the party believe he was brought into office to build his national political profile and donor network ahead of a possible 2024 presidential campaign. Some were annoyed by the committee’s promotional materials, which featured heavily on Scott’s own biography and less on Scott’s candidates for election.
Scott then released an 11-point plan earlier this year that called for modest tax increases for many of the lowest-income Americans while opening the door to cuts to Social Security and Medicare, which McConnell was quick to reject. Denied the plan to present its own agenda.
The feud is due in part to declining trust in Scott’s leadership and the commission’s poor financial health, which is $20 million in debt, according to a senior Republican adviser.
Democrats have postponed internal elections until after Thanksgiving.
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