Senate Republicans are scheduled to vote for leadership positions on Tuesday after the GOP lost the majority in the upper chamber.

Although no challenger has emerged to replace Sen. John Thune (R-SD) as the Republican Senate leader, multiple senators want to delay the elections.

“We need to elect Republican leadership in the Senate, but tomorrow is too soon,” Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) said.

“Our conference needs to sit down and have a frank conversation about where we fell short, what we stand for, and what we’re going to do for the working families that sent us here,” he continued.

“Let’s have that discussion first. Then we can choose the leaders who will carry out the agenda we agree on,” he added.

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According to Just the News, Banks joins GOP Sens. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, Rick Scott of Florida, and John Kennedy of Louisiana to call for a delay in the leadership elections.

More from Just the News:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has faced considerable flak from the White House and conservative base over his failure to pass the SAVE America Act, a marquis voter ID bill that was a top priority for Republicans.

Several of his senior supporters, including Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, moreover, lost their reelection bids, potentially weakening Thune’s grip on the conference.

“Over the last two years, Senate Republicans have put up a strong record of accomplishment that’s created safer streets, more money in Americans’ pockets, and new opportunities for families and businesses to get ahead. After fighting Democrat obstruction at every turn, we prevented the largest tax hike in American history, secured our border in an unprecedented way, confirmed the president’s Cabinet at the fastest pace in two decades, and put strong conservative judges on benches across the country faster than we have since the Reagan administration,” Thune said after last week’s midterm elections.

“I’m proud of our team and everything we’ve done for the American people, and I’m looking forward to the important work we have in front of us over the next few months. As we head into 2027, Senate Republicans will not stand idly by as the far-left, socialist wing of the Democrat Party attempts to unwind everything we’ve done. Thankfully, we still have President Trump in the White House, and we’ll work with him to stop the worst impulses of Democrat extremism. We cannot let their fringe positions become the mainstream,” he added.

Roll Call shared further:

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., sent a letter to Senate Conference Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on Monday morning that included the signatures of four other Republican senators asking for a delay in the leadership contest and for a conference meeting. Under conference rules, five signatures are required to call such a meeting.

The letter, also signed by Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Rick Scott of Florida, and John Kennedy of Louisiana and obtained by CQ Roll Call, reads in part: “Tuesday’s result was a stunning defeat, and there are multiple reasons for it. We need to have serious discussions within our conference as to what we can do to improve the outcome in 2028.”

“Holding leadership elections without engaging in a robust discussion and evaluation of how those running for leadership intend to lead would be political malpractice. It is certainly not the way leadership elections should be conducted in the world’s greatest deliberative body,” the letter continues.

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The group is asking that at the time the leadership elections were set to begin, 9 a.m. on Tuesday, they “have a fulsome conference discussion and delay holding leadership elections until we all have a chance to hear from leadership candidates as to what type of collaborative conference governing model we should adopt and what our strategy will be to counter the emboldened Democrats.”

Sens. Jim Banks of Indiana and Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania are similarly calling for a delay, though they do not appear on Johnson’s letter.

“A week ago, we had the worst election results in decades,” McCormick said in a post on X. “We need a discussion about what went wrong, how to fix it, what we stand for and how our agenda must focus on the concerns of the American people. As I’ve shared with Leader Thune, I don’t believe we should move to leadership elections until we have digested and debated the lessons of the midterms and how to move forward.”

 

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