Midterm results, allowing Democrats hold their Senate majorityhas led some Republicans to openly question who will lead the party moving forward ahead of the leadership elections.
Hawley says McConnell can’t get GOP back to majority
Senator Josh Hawley told CNN’s Manu Raju that “obviously what we’re doing is not working” to be the majority party.
“It hasn’t worked for a long time,” he said. “And I think you look at independents, I mean, we give them nothing, no choice. It is the decision of the leader. They don’t want an agenda.”
Hawley added that he would vote for Senator Rick Scott if he challenged Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell for the leadership and reiterated that he believes the leadership election should be contested. delayed until after the vote in Georgia.
Cruz on leadership elections: We need a leader who “doesn’t roll right away”
Senator Ted Cruz has criticized the GOP leadership of the Senate for “surrendering to the Democrats” over the past two years, and harshly criticized their messaging strategy this cycle.
“I believe we should have a leader who really listens to the conference, and is willing to stand up to the fight, not roll over right away,” Cruz said.
“Our current leadership believes that the way you win elections is that you don’t support anything, you don’t have an agenda, you don’t have a plan. Instead, the only thing you stand up for is, ‘Well, I’m not a Democrat. So please vote for me.’ What do you know? Election day shows that we need to be more than just a Democrat,” he said.
Cruz said it would be “completely insane” to hold leadership elections tomorrow, before the election results.
“I tell you this, I believe that if we don’t delay the election, I think there’s a good chance we’ll see someone run against Mitch McConnell,” he added.
Trump’s former chief of staff says it’s time for RNC chairman to move on
Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s former acting chief of staff, told CNN’s Kate Bolduan he’s not a fan of Ronna McDaniel’s re-election as chair of the Republican National Committee.
“We got along well while I was in the White House and I personally have no complaints about her. But we had a losing record when she was in charge. Again, we lost in 2018. We lost in 2020. We didn’t win like we should have last week,” Mulvaney said on Tuesday.
Mulvaney’s comments come amid reports that McDaniel told RNC members on a conference call on Monday that she intends to be re-elected for another term, according to reports. person familiar with the call.
Thune looks forward to “frank conversation” at GOP lunch
Republican Senator John Thune said he expected a “candid conversation” when members of the GOP conference met for lunch Tuesday to assess why they had a fuzzy election result. pale and begin the process of deciding who their elected leadership group will be for the next Congress.
“I expect leaders will be able to speak up as we usually do. But I also expect a lot of our members – who tend to speak in most cases during these lunches – to speak today. We’ll see where it goes,” Thune told reporters at the Capitol. “I think it’s good. We need these frank conversations, definitely in the family as we think about charting the future, learning from the past, being informed by the past, but get ready. for the future.”
Thune also said he hopes former President Donald Trump will wait until after the Georgia Senate election to announce another presidential bid, which he is expected to do later this evening. .
