Senate Republicans vying to switch longtime chief Mitch McConnell have been crossing the nation to marketing campaign and fundraise for colleagues, making their remaining arguments earlier than a consequential poll the week after the presidential election. However their pitches are largely behind closed doorways, and most GOP senators received’t but say which lawmaker they’re backing.
South Dakota’s John Thune, McConnell’s present No. 2, and John Cornyn of Texas, who held that job earlier than Thune, are the front-runners within the Nov. 13 secret poll to switch McConnell. The Kentucky senator is stepping other than the put up in January after virtually twenty years as chief. The winner may steer the course of the get together for years to come back and probably turn out to be the following Senate majority chief if Republicans win sufficient seats in Tuesday’s election.
The result is, for now, unsure.
Just a few Republican senators have publicly endorsed a candidate. Many say they’re nonetheless undecided. The third senator within the race — Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who’s coping with his personal reelection bid — may act as a spoiler. One other candidate may nonetheless bounce in.
In some ways, “the two Johns” are remarkably comparable, making the selection troublesome for his or her colleagues. Each are well-liked and, within the mould of McConnell, lean towards the extra conventional wing of the Republican Celebration. However each have additionally prompt they may attempt to transfer on from the McConnell period with a extra open method.
“I’m trying to find differentiation because they’re both great guys,” stated Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who has labored intently with each of them.
The 2 males are additionally attempting to tell apart themselves from McConnell by making clear that they help Donald Trump on this 12 months’s presidential election. Like McConnell, they’ve each sparred with Trump previously, particularly after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. However each Thune and Cornyn have talked to Trump often in current months, attended marketing campaign occasions and visited his Florida dwelling.
Whether or not Trump wins, and if he endorses one of many contenders, may turn out to be a figuring out issue.
“I don’t know what he’ll do,” Cornyn stated of Trump in September. “But this is obviously an election between senators, and I think that’s where the voters are.”
A few of the former president’s strongest allies within the Senate are urging him to remain above the fray. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who’s supporting Thune, says he’s been attempting to speak Trump out of an endorsement. Trump understands “the need to work with whoever the next leader is,” Mullin stated.
Tillis prompt {that a} Trump endorsement may backfire.
“You have to be careful with the psychology of the Senate,” Tillis stated. “We know each other very well, and we spend hours and hours together. It’s a fairly small club.”
Nonetheless, each Cornyn and Thune are conserving near Trump. Cornyn met Trump on a visit to Texas in October and appeared at a rally in Nevada. Thune was at an occasion in August with Trump’s working mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
Thune, who stated after the Jan. 6 assault that Trump’s efforts to disrupt the peaceable switch of energy have been “inexcusable,” instructed The Related Press over the summer season that he views their potential relationship as an expert one. In the event that they each win their elections, Thune stated, “we’ve got a job to do.”
Scott, in the meantime, is a longtime good friend of Trump’s and has positioned himself as a robust ally. Scott traveled to New York to help Trump throughout Trump’s hush cash trial. Trump may endorse Scott within the contest, probably successful extra votes for the Florida senator or giving him leverage to affect the race.
Along with personal conferences, each Thune and Cornyn have flown across the nation to fundraise and marketing campaign for his or her fellow senators.
Thune has made greater than two dozen marketing campaign stops for GOP senate candidates, and aides say he has raised greater than $31 million for Senate races this marketing campaign cycle, together with a $4 million switch to the Senate Republican marketing campaign operation.
Cornyn has equally gone round for candidates and poured cash into Texas races. His aides emphasize his lengthy historical past of fundraising for Republicans — greater than $400 million throughout his 22 years within the Senate, his workplace says.
On coverage, the 2 males are comparable, voting usually consistent with the convention however working with Democrats at occasions. Cornyn is a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who took a main function on bipartisan gun laws two years in the past. Thune labored throughout the aisle as a former chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
It’s unclear whether or not both may win help from the rising minority of Republican senators who battled McConnell lately as he championed Ukraine help and criticized Trump. Many in that group voted for Scott when he challenged McConnell after the 2022 elections.
In a possible overture to that group, Cornyn has referred to as for a convention vote on instituting time period limits for the Republican chief. “I believe the Senate needs more engagement from my colleagues, and that includes the opportunity for any member to serve in leadership,” Cornyn posted on X in March.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a member of the extra conservative faction, stated he has not made a dedication within the race however desires to know the way they’d transfer laws and work with Trump if he’s president. “I think some of this will come into focus after the election when we know what we’re dealing with, we know what our caucus is going to be,” Hawley stated.
Many in that group, together with Scott and Utah Sen. Mike Lee, have pushed to take energy away from management and empower particular person senators. Lee has issued a sequence of candidate calls for, however neither Cornyn nor Thune has to this point proven curiosity in negotiating.
However each of them have signaled that they hear the complaints.
Thune indicated within the AP interview that he’s open to creating adjustments to the chief’s function, however cautioned that he wouldn’t go away the place on the mercy of rank-and-file senators. He stated he wished to “empower our individual members or committees to do things through regular order” and open up the modification course of, however “I’m not going to make wholesale changes that weaken the leader position to where it’s just a free-for-all.”
Tillis prompt in September that it will be a deal breaker for him if any of the candidates engaged in deal-making.
“If you would be willing to weaken your position to satisfy a few votes, then you’re unfit to be leader, in my opinion,” Tillis stated. “And I think most people think that way.”
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