Earlier on Tuesday, as Katie covered, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who also chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), made his intentions official to challenge Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for his leadership position.
McConnell believes he has the votes, and while that may be true, there's no escaping the fact that people blame the minority leader, at least in part, for Republicans failing to take back control of the Senate.
McConnell: “I think the outcome is pretty clear. I want to repeat again, I have the votes, I will be elected. The only issue is whether we do it sooner or later.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 15, 2022
CNN's Manu Raju has been covering the Senate battle at length over Twitter. He also spoke with McConnell about charges that he bears some of that blame.
“…. they’re engulfed in chaos, negativity and excessive attacks, and it frightened independent and moderate Republican voters. … We had national issue set that was favorable, but as a result of our own, the perception many of them had that we were not dealing with issues…
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 15, 2022
The GOP leader added: “So we learned some lessons about this, and I think the lesson’s pretty clear – Senate races are different, candidate quality, you recall I said in August is important. In most of our states we met that test, in a few of them we did not.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 15, 2022
Not all of McConnell's fellow Republicans are buying his argument, though. Sen. Scott has the support of at least one member, Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN). Although Braun was not up for reelection this year and will announce his 2024 intentions in the coming weeks, he still likened himself and his Senate run to Scott in a statement for Townhall.
"I ran for Senate because we need OUTSIDERS to take on the D.C. swamp and get RESULTS. Hoosier conservative Republicans are sick and tired of the status quo. I’m proud to support my friend and fellow conservative outsider Rick Scott for our Leader," Braun said.
Scott himself, in comments to Raju, had echoed this criticism about McConnell being the "status quo."
McCarthy concedes he's got "work cut out" to get to 218 votes for gavel
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 16, 2022
Hawley: "No," McConnell can't get Rs back to majority.
Tense GOP meeting; Scott says McConnell is the "status quo"
McConnell says too many people in his party spread "negativity" and hurt them with indies pic.twitter.com/kyWKC77J1v
Other members have expressed discontent with McConnell, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who is mentioned in Raju's tweet above as well. Last week, he called out "Washington Republicanism" in a series of tweets, and also spoke out against the Republican leader in an interview with RealClearPolitics. More recently, he issued a call for a delay in the vote to see if Herschel Walker, Sen. Raphael Warnock's (D-GA) Republican opponent, emerges victorious in next month's runoff.
We have a contested leadership election in the Senate GOP. My view is we should let @HerschelWalker vote! Don’t disenfranchise him. Tomorrow at the election meeting I will ask for a vote on a delay to allow Herschel, if elected, to participate
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 15, 2022
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have also been vocal in calling for a delay in the vote, highlighting disappointments with the 2022 election results. Rubio's pinned tweet, from Monday, doubles down on such a call.
Tomorrow, Senate Republican leadership elections are on the schedule.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 15, 2022
That is insane.
We don’t even know who will be in the Republican Conference yet! pic.twitter.com/zSOFsclEv8
We should not have a Senate GOP leadership vote until we have a clear explanation for why our 2022 campaign efforts failed AND until we have a clear understanding of the political & policy direction for the GOP Senate moving forward
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 14, 2022
Senate Republicans will meet at 9:30am on Wednesday.
Senate GOP meeting tomorrow at 9:30am to elect leadership team. Cruz will offer a motion to delay the election until after Georgia runoff. McConnell essentially assured a victory — and only question is how many Rs vote for Scott
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 15, 2022
On Tuesday evening, Sen. Cruz tweeted out a thread detailing how he will offer a motion to delay the leadership elections. "We owe this to the American people," he tweeted.
Republican leadership needs a plan to fight the disastrous policies from the Biden admin.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 16, 2022
After a disappointing election, it's ridiculous for Republicans to immediately rubber stamp the same leadership without having this discussion. 2/x