Republican members of the Senate are currently competing for the opportunity to work as Senate Majority Leader after the Republicans flipped control of the upper chamber.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, announced plans earlier this year to step down from his leadership position after the elections, meaning that other lawmakers will have to compete for the opportunity to lead Republicans in the next Congress. Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune, and Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso are each expected to mount bids for the position.
Cornyn, who previously served as Senate Majority Whip, as well as Thune, who is the current Senate Minority Whip, have each campaigned across the country for Republican candidates this year as they seek support ahead of the secret ballot leadership election slated for next week. Both have also labored to win over President-Elect Donald Trump to support their candidacies.
Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott, who decisively defeated his Democratic rival this week, meanwhile announced that he would contend for the Senate Majority Leader position as well.
“Next week we have another election,” he said. “Two years ago I challenged Mitch McConnell because I know there has to be a change. We have a great Republican Party all across this country and we need a Republican Party in DC to start solving the problems of this country.”
Scott had mounted a failed bid to replace McConnell after the midterms two years ago. The lawmaker said that Republicans should be “far more bold and resolute than we have been.”
McConnell, who started his Senate tenure in 1985, is both the longest-serving Senate leader in American history and the longest-serving member of the Senate from Kentucky. The eighty-two-year-old revealed he would step down amid an apparent decline in physical health.
Republicans flipped a number of seats in the Senate, meaning that current Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, will presumably become Senate Minority Leader.
