WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s dramatic victory has scrambled next week’s three-way contest to replace Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the chamber’s longest-serving leader who is stepping down at the end of the year.
Two of McConnell’s trusted lieutenants — Senate Minority Whip John Thune, of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican leader, and Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas, who previously held that role — as well as Sen. Rick Scott, a conservative bomb-thrower from Trump’s home state of Florida, are all running to be Senate leader after Republicans recaptured the majority in Tuesday’s election.
A third John who was considered a potential candidate, GOP Conference Chair John Barrasso, of Wyoming, decided not to run for the top job and will run for the No. 2 majority whip post instead.
Because of their years in leadership and relationships across the GOP Conference, Thune and Cornyn have been seen as the most likely successors to McConnell. But the pair have broken with Trump on several occasions and have spent the year trying to make amends with the past and now future president.
With Trump returning to power, Scott and his conservative allies are making the case that he should be the one to run the Senate despite winning just 10 votes when he challenged McConnell for the top job two years ago.
The Trump loyalist personally asked Trump for his endorsement in May when he notified the former president that he was launching a bid for Republican leader, a source familiar with the conservation told NBC News.
“He supported me when I ran against McConnell two years ago; I’m hoping he’ll support me this time,” Scott said on Fox Business Wednesday, adding that he and Trump have been texting back and forth. “I’m doing everything I can to make sure his agenda gets accomplished.”
Trump has not publicly weighed in on the race and is staying out of it for now, according to a Republican source who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private strategy.
One ally of both Scott and Trump, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., urged Trump to endorse Scott, a former Florida governor who cruised to re-election in the Senate on Tuesday night.
“If you’ve got any influence with President Trump, ask President Trump to come out publicly and say he wants to work with somebody as accomplished as Rick Scott to accomplish his agenda. We’ve got to do big things. We have to deliver,” Johnson told a host on the conservative network, “The First.”
“We need outside the box, paradigm-shifting type of thinking in the United States Senate and, working with President Trump, he’s going to need something like Rick Scott,” Johnson said. “So urge the president to come out and endorse Rick Scott publicly — it’s probably what Rick’s going to need to become the majority leader.”
But while Trump has been the most powerful Republican in the country for nearly nine years, it’s not clear that an endorsement from him would guarantee a Scott victory. Leadership elections are closed-door affairs and conducted by secret ballot, meaning that a senator’s vote is not publicly known.
To win, a candidate needs a simple majority. If no candidate gets one on the first ballot, the candidate with the least number of votes is cast aside and the race goes head-to-head with the top two candidates.
Triumphant Republicans return to Washington next week. Sen. Mike Lee, of Utah, is planning to host a forum with the trio of candidates on Tuesday. The election will take place Wednesday, and new senators-elect, including Bernie Moreno of Ohio, Tim Sheehy of Montana and Jim Justice of West Virginia, will be able to participate.
Appearing on CNBC this week, Thune encouraged Trump to stay out of the internal leadership race.
“Obviously, if he wants to, he could exert a considerable amount of influence on that, but honestly, I think my preference would be, and I think it’s probably in his best interest, to stay out of that,” Thune said.
“These Senate secret ballot elections are probably best left to senators, and he’s got to work with all of us when it’s all said and done,” Thune added, “but whatever he decides to do, that’s going to be his prerogative, as we know.”
Thune’s remarks are interesting given that he likely has the most work to do to convince his colleagues that he’s on the same page with Trump. Thune criticized Trump for his actions around Jan. 6, 2021, as well as some policy proposals and his offensive rhetoric. He endorsed colleague Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., in the presidential primary, then backed Trump months later after Scott dropped out.
Just last year, Cornyn said that Trump could not win in 2024, that “President Trump’s time has passed him by” and that he would be looking for other candidates to back in the GOP primary. Months later, as Trump destroyed his primary opponents, Cornyn endorsed Trump.
In the lead-up to the leadership race, both Thune and Cornyn have been trying to make their peace with Trump. Thune visited him at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida in March, and they have spoken several times since then, most recently last week, according to a source familiar with Thune’s schedule.
Cornyn joined Trump at a rally in Reno, Nevada, last month for Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown, whose race is currently too close to call, according to NBC News projections. Cornyn also was with Trump during his visit to Texas.
“As I told President Trump, I’m interested in getting the band back together again,” Cornyn told Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Monday.
Still, it’s the votes of their GOP colleagues that these candidates will need. And Cornyn and Thune are hoping that their travels and relationships with both current and incoming senators serve as a bridge between the more moderate wing of the GOP conference and the MAGA wing of the party, which was already growing in influence before Trump’s win on Tuesday.
A source familiar with Thune’s operation said he raised north of $33 million this cycle across his accounts, for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and directly for candidates. He was a top fundraiser for the NRSC, and he’s headlined more than 200 events this cycle for candidates and the NRSC, the source said.
Cornyn, who held the whip job before Thune, touts that he was in that job as the GOP leadership’s vote-counter when Trump’s tax cuts were passed in the Senate. The Texan also spent October visiting battleground states to campaign with candidates and raised more than $26 million as of the end of September, said a source familiar with his political operation.
He has crisscrossed the country, campaigning for colleagues, including Sen. Ted Cruz, a fellow Texas Republican for whom he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars this cycle.
