McCormick and Banks Join Push to Delay Senate GOP Leadership Vote
Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Dave McCormick is backing a push by conservative colleagues to delay the Senate GOP leadership elections scheduled for Tuesday, after Democrats won control of both the House and Senate in the midterms.
"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," McCormick wrote late Sunday.
"We need leadership in place fast, but Tuesday is too soon," he continued. "I know it's been the practice to go straight to leadership elections in recent years, but we should not rush it."
McCormick called last week's results "the worst election result" for Republicans "in decades." He added: "We need a discussion about what went wrong, how we fix it, what we stand for, and how our agenda must focus on the concerns of the American people."
READ MORE: Ron Johnson Leads GOP Push to Delay Senate Leadership Vote in Blow to Thune
Johnson's Letter
Senate Budget Committee Chair Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has gathered the signatures he needed for a letter to Senate Republican Conference Chair Tom Cotton of Arkansas, demanding a conference meeting to discuss pausing the vote.
"We need to have serious discussions within our conference as to what we can do to improve the outcome in 2028," Johnson and his colleagues wrote.
"Holding leadership elections without engaging in a robust discussion and evaluation of how those running for leadership intend to lead would be political malpractice," the letter says. "It is certainly not the way leadership elections should be conducted in the world's most deliberative body."
Johnson wants the conference to delay any leadership vote "until we all have a chance to hear from leadership candidates as to what type of collaborative conference governing model we should adopt." He also said Republicans need a "strategy" to "counter the emboldened Democrats."
Banks Joins the Group
Senate Steering Committee Chair Mike Lee of Utah has also called for a delay. "We have no business holding Senate Republican leadership elections until: 1) we've had ample opportunity to discuss what happened on Tuesday, and 2) we know who's going to be in our conference," Lee posted on X last week.
Indiana Sen. Jim Banks has now joined the effort as well. "We need to elect Republican leadership in the Senate, but tomorrow is too soon," Banks 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 who sent us here. Let's have that discussion first."
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That puts at least six GOP senators publicly behind a delay: Johnson, Lee, Rick Scott of Florida, John Kennedy of Louisiana, McCormick and Banks. Five senators are enough to force a special conference meeting.
Thune Still the Favorite
The Senate GOP conference plans to meet Tuesday morning, when Johnson, McCormick and Lee will get a chance to make their case. If they fall short, senators will vote on the new leadership team later that morning.
For now, Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota has no challenger and could easily be reelected. Conservatives tried to postpone leadership elections after the 2022 midterms and the 2024 presidential election, but failed both times to win over a majority of their colleagues.
Late last week, President Donald Trump vented about the Senate. "The Senate is getting nothing passed, and it's just killing our country," he said, accusing Democrats of voting as a bloc while a handful of Republicans obstruct his agenda.