A group of Senate Republicans is calling for a delay of Tuesday’s leadership elections until after figuring out the cause of the midterm drubbing.
Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, is spearheading the effort.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, is the only member of his party running for leader.
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Also, no new candidates have publicly announced that they’re vying for the other leadership positions: whip, conference chair, vice chair, Republican Policy Committee chair and Republican Senatorial Committee chair.
“All I’m asking is we have the very robust discussion that we should have after a stunning defeat before moving into leadership elections,” Mr. Johnson said Friday on CBS News, explaining his letter calling for a Tuesday morning meeting.
“We don’t even know how many people are in our conference yet,” said Mr. Johnson, referencing the too-close-to-call races in Mississippi and Alaska. “There’s a lot of reason for robust discussion and reflection about what went wrong.”
Senate Republican Conference rules say that a special conference meeting must be called if five or more senators request one in writing.
A source familiar with the matter told The Washington Times on Saturday that Mr. Johnson has five signatures.
He wants to give fellow GOP senators “a chance to hear from leadership candidates” on “what our strategy will be to counter the emboldened Democrats.”
Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican who has run for leadership before, backs the idea, although he says he doesn’t want to run.
“Let’s sit down and decide what we’re going to do differently,” he said Saturday on Fox News. “Then we can decide who’s going to be the leader. I don’t want to run again. I’ve run twice.”
GOP Sens. John Kennedy of Louisiana and Mike Lee of Utah also support the delay.
The minority leader will head a much-diminished conference, as Democrats have already flipped seven Senate seats.
“This isn’t being hostile to leadership or to John Thune,” Mr. Johnson said. “We need to have this discussion. … Within that discussion, it will also provide direction for the people we elect as leaders. So again, this is just a valuable thing to do.”
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