Republican Senate Campaign Chief Sen. Rick Scott announced his plans to challenge and usurp Mitch McConnell as Senate Leader, marking the first such opposition in the last 15 years.
Scott said in an interview that he was unsatisfied with the status quo, which was clear criticism of McConnell's nearly 16 years as Senate leader. On the other hand, McConnell said that while Scott was free to challenge him, he had no chance of winning.
Rick Scott Challenges Mitch McConnell
The contest between the two GOP officials will come to a head on Wednesday when Republican senators meet for leadership elections. At the beginning of the session, Republicans are expected to hold a vote to determine whether or not to delay the elections until the Georgia and Alaska Senate races have finished.
McConnell said that he had the support of voters and assured that he would win re-election, noting that the only question was if it would come sooner or later. He added that he did not own the job but said that anyone serving in the conference could challenge him for the position, as per Politico.
Republican senators spent nearly three hours discussing with each other the party's poor performance in the midterm elections despite an expected "red wave." They conducted an unusually long meeting that revealed deep frustrations regarding the conference's inability to take advantage of President Joe Biden's middling popularity and rising costs.
GOP members failed to flip any Democratic seats and are now consigned to the minority for two more years. The situation has prompted some Republican senators to complain loudly in the private lunch, arguing that a lack of unified agenda cost the party the majority.
According to Axios, for months, Scott, the chairman of Senate Republicans' campaign arm and a member of Senate Republican leadership, has publicly argued with McConnell over differing strategies for the midterms.
Republicans in the Senate
Furthermore, the Senate campaign chief is also one of many conservative senators who have called on McConnell to delay the leadership elections of the Senate GOP until after the Georgia runoff on December 6.
Amid the controversy, former United States President Donald Trump has been pushing Scott to run against McConnell. The Republican businessman has tried to make the Senate leader the fall guy for the GOP's inability to regain the Senate majority.
Trump, who is expected to make a Tuesday night announcement regarding his potential plans for a 2024 presidential campaign, is anticipated to lean hard on his Senate allies to back Scott over McConnell.
Despite his attempts, the former president's influence on the GOP has faltered since last Tuesday's elections. Many Republican lawmakers have started to distance themselves from Trump after several key GOP candidates that he hand-selected lost their races.
In a letter to GOP colleagues, Scott announced his plans by saying that it was time for the Senate Republican Conference to be more bold and more resolute. The official added that GOP members should start focusing on what they and not what they are up against, Fox News reported.
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