WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s dramatic victory has set up a three-way contest next week to replace Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the chamber’s longest-serving leader who will step down at the end of the year.
Two of McConnell’s trusted aides — 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 from Trump’s party. All of them, in Florida, are competing for the position of Senate leader after Republicans regained the majority in Tuesday’s elections.
A third John who was considered a potential candidate, Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso, of Wyoming, has decided not to run for the top job and will run for the No. 2 majority seat instead.
Given their years in leadership and relationships across the GOP conference, Thune and Cornyn are viewed as the most likely successors to McConnell. But the duo broke up with Trump on several occasions and spent the year trying to reconcile with the past president and now the future president.
With Trump back in power, Scott and his conservative allies are making the argument that he should be the one to run the Senate even though he won by just 10 votes when he challenged McConnell for the top job two years ago.
A source familiar with the conservation process told NBC News that the Trump loyalist personally asked Trump for his endorsement in May when he informed the former president that he would launch a bid for Republican leader.
“He supported me when I ran against McConnell two years ago. “I hope he supports me this time,” Scott said on Fox Business Wednesday, adding that he and Trump had been exchanging text messages back and forth. “I’m doing everything I can to make sure his agenda gets done.”
Trump has not commented publicly on the race and will remain out of it for now, according to a Republican source who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private strategy.
An ally of Scott and Trump, Sen. Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, urged Trump to endorse Scott, the former Florida governor who is running for re-election to the Senate on Tuesday evening.
“If you have any influence on President Trump, ask President Trump to come out publicly and say he wants to work with someone as brilliant as Rick Scott to get his agenda done. We have to do big things. We have to deliver,” Johnson told an anchor on the conservative network The First. .
“We need some kind of unconventional thinking in the United States Senate, and working with President Trump, he’s going to need something like Rick Scott,” Johnson said. “So urging the president to come out and publicly endorse Rick Scott — maybe that’s what Rick will need to become majority leader.”
But while Trump has been the country’s most powerful Republican for nearly nine years, it’s not clear whether his endorsement will guarantee Scott’s victory. Leadership elections are closed affairs and conducted by secret ballot, meaning a senator’s vote is not publicly known.
For a candidate to win, he needs a simple majority. If no candidate wins on the first ballot, the candidate with the fewest votes is set aside and the race goes head-to-head with the two candidates with the highest number of votes.
The victorious Republicans return to Washington next week. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, plans to host a forum with the three candidates on Tuesday. The election will be held on Wednesday, and newly elected senators, including Bernie Moreno of Ohio, Tim Sheehy of Montana, and Jim Justice of West Virginia, will be able to participate.
In an appearance on CNBC this week, Thune encouraged Trump to stay out of the domestic leadership race.
“Obviously if he wanted to, he could exert a significant amount of influence on that, but frankly, I think my best interest, and I think it’s probably in his best interest, is to stay out of that,” Thune said.
“Senate secret ballot elections are best left to the senators,” Thune added, “and he will have to work with all of us when all is said and done, but whatever he decides to do, that will be his prerogative, as we know.”
Thune’s remarks are interesting given that he likely has a lot of work to do to convince his colleagues that he is on the same page with Trump. Thune criticized Trump for his actions around January 6, 2021, as well as some policy proposals and his offensive rhetoric. He endorsed fellow Sen. Tim Scott, Sen. Tim Scott, in the presidential primary, then backed Trump months later after Scott withdrew.
Just last year, Cornyn said Trump couldn’t win in 2024, that “President Trump’s time has passed” and that he would look for other candidates to support in the GOP primaries. Months later, as Trump destroyed his primary opponents, Cornyn endorsed Trump.
In the lead-up to the leadership race, both Thune and Cornyn were trying to make peace with Trump. Thune visited him at his club, Mar-a-Lago, 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 GOP Senate candidate Sam Brown, whose race is currently close, according to an NBC News projection. Cornyn was also with Trump during his visit to Texas.
“As I told President Trump, I’m interested in getting the band back together,” Cornyn told Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Monday.
However, it is the votes of their GOP colleagues that these candidates will need. Cornyn and Thune hope their travels and relationships with current and incoming senators will serve as a bridge between the more moderate wing of the GOP convention and the MAGA wing of the party, whose influence was already growing before Trump’s victory on Tuesday.
A source familiar with Thune’s operation said he raised as much as $33 million this cycle through his accounts for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and directly to candidates. He was a major fundraiser for the NRSC, chairing more than 200 events this cycle for candidates and the NRSC, the source said.
Cornyn, who served as whip before Thune, touts that he was in that position as a vote counter for the GOP leadership when Trump’s tax cuts passed the Senate. A source familiar with his political process said that the Texas man also spent October visiting states witnessing an electoral battle to participate in election campaigns with candidates and raise more than $26 million until the end of September.
He has crisscrossed the country, campaigning for colleagues, including Sen. Ted Cruz, a fellow Texas Republican who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars this cycle.
