Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is leading an effort to postpone next week’s scheduled elections for the Senate GOP leadership team after the party’s bruising midterm elections performance.
In a letter that he plans to send Monday to Senate Republican Conference Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) and obtained by the Washington Examiner, Johnson called it “political malpractice” to move forward with the closed-door elections so soon after a “stunning defeat.”
“It is certainly not the way leadership elections should be conducted in the world’s greatest deliberative body,” Johnson writes.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Cotton’s office for comment.
At least five Senate Republicans have signed the letter backing a delay in internal elections as of Friday, according to a source familiar. The push by Johnson could force a conference-wide meeting before Tuesday afternoon’s planned secret-ballot vote. The Senate returns from recess Monday evening.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) was one of the signatories, who posted online that he agreed with Johnson’s position.
“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 wrote, referencing two outstanding Senate races in Alaska and Mississippi that have yet to be called but Democrats were leading.
Still, the internal elections are expected to continue as planned, and Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-SD) path to another two-year stint leading the conference does not appear to be at risk. He remains unopposed.
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Johnson wants the meeting to occur Tuesday morning to conduct a “fulsome conference discussion and delay holding leadership elections until we 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.”
Democrats have so far flipped seven GOP-held Senate seats: South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Maine, Ohio, Iowa, and Kansas. Republican seats in Alaska and Mississippi remain too close to call. Democrats are looking at a 54-seat majority minimum that could expand to 56.