Conservative Senators Secure Support to Force Leadership Reckoning After Midterm Defeat

A group of Senate Republicans is urging the Senate Republican Conference to delay Senate leadership elections after the party’s major midterm defeat. After receiving support from enough senators to require a Senate Republican Conference meeting, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin sent a letter to Senate Republican Conference Chairman Tom Cotton and Senate Majority leadership Monday morning.

With growing support from conservative leaders, the letter calls for delaying the leadership elections and holding a conference-wide meeting to discuss Tuesday’s “stunning defeat” and how they can “improve the outcome in 2028.” The letter also calls for delaying the elections until the conference has a chance to hear from all candidates. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is running unopposed as of Monday morning.

The letter is signed by Johnson and Sens. Ted Budd, Rick Scott, Mike Lee, and John Kennedy. According to Senate Republican Conference rules, five senators’ support in writing is enough to require a conference-wide meeting. The letter asks the conference to meet this Tuesday at 9 a.m.

“Senate Republican leadership bears significant responsibility for the midterm election results,” Dr. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, wrote in support of Johnson. “They failed to address the top concerns of the American people and pass overwhelmingly popular policies that Americans sent them to Washington to enact,” Roberts continued, calling for the delayed leadership election.

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“Whoever leads the Republican Conference going forward should put forth a plan showing the American people that Senate Republicans got the message on Election Night and are prepared to put up a meaningful fight for a conservative agenda moving forward,” he concluded.

“Since 1934 … on average, elections have occurred about 40 days after the election, leadership elections. Since 2006, it’s been nine days. I personally find that obnoxious. There’s no reason to rush into the elections, particularly after a stunning defeat,” Johnson said.

Though Sens. Jim Banks and Dave McCormick did not sign the letter, they have vocally supported Johnson’s call to delay the elections.

“We need to elect Republican leadership in the Senate, but tomorrow is too soon,” Banks said in a statement. “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. Then we can choose the leaders who will carry out the agenda we agree on,” he continued.

“One of the things I learned in business and the Army is that after a failure, you have to start with honesty, transparency, and accountability. A week ago, we had the worst election results in decades. 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,” McCormick said in a statement.

“As l’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. We need leadership in place fast, but Tuesday is too soon. I know it’s been the practice to go straight to leadership elections in recent years, but we should not rush it,” he concluded.