Republican senators are pushing back against John Thune’s leadership election timetable, demanding that their conference examine its midterm losses before choosing its next leaders. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, has gathered enough signatures to force a conference meeting on postponing the vote. Mike Lee, Rick Scott, and John Kennedy have backed the effort, which comes after a midterm defeat that cost Republicans their Senate majority.
The dispute comes ahead of leadership elections scheduled for Tuesday morning, November 10th, in the Old Senate Chamber. Thune is seeking another term leading Senate Republicans, who lost at least seven Senate seats in the midterm elections and will enter the minority in the next Congress. His spokesperson confirmed that he intends to run for minority leader, while Wyoming Senator John Barrasso is seeking to retain the whip position.
Johnson’s effort uses conference rules allowing five or more Republican senators to request a meeting in writing. His proposal would give members time to evaluate leadership candidates and discuss how the conference should operate. Johnson warned that holding elections without a robust discussion of those seeking to lead “would be political malpractice.” Senate races in Alaska and Mississippi remained unresolved when senators began pressing for a delay following the November 3rd election.
As Trending Politics reported, Scott supported postponement while ruling out another leadership bid himself, having narrowly lost his own challenge in 2024, when Thune won the top post. “I don’t want to run again. I’ve run twice. I think we oughta be listeners,” he said. Thune remained without a publicly announced challenger, and Johnson acknowledged uncertainty about whether his effort would succeed in securing a postponement.
Johnson discussed his objections during a November 5th interview on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show.” He criticized the practice of holding leadership elections immediately after senators return from the election recess, sometimes before the conference’s membership is settled, and said it was unacceptable to simply “elect this leadership team by acclamation.” Comparing the process with the approach of Thune’s predecessor, he said, “They’re doing the same old Mitch McConnell thing.”
The hosts asked Johnson to identify what Republicans had failed to accomplish during their time controlling Congress. He first raised his planned letter seeking a conference meeting, then called for a thorough examination of the election results. Turning to legislation, Johnson credited Republicans with preventing an automatic tax increase but argued that temporary tax cuts had failed to persuade working voters facing high fuel costs.
See Johnson discuss his push to delay the leadership elections on CBS News here:
"*" indicates required fields
The dispute follows earlier tensions between Thune and President Donald Trump over stalled legislation. The Daily Signal reported that much of the friction concerned the SAVE America Act’s failure to advance in the Senate. In July, then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s patience with Thune was “running out.” A Senate aide nevertheless told the outlet that Trump and Thune spoke on Wednesday and communicate frequently.
The Daily Signal also reported frustration among Republican staffers over the leadership selection process. One Senate GOP aide criticized the use of closed-door elections and secret ballots, arguing that voters cannot hold senators accountable for protecting incumbent leaders. Newly elected members were preparing to arrive in Washington for orientation scheduled between November 8th and November 18th, while Republicans considered who would direct their work in the minority.
During his radio interview, Johnson also challenged colleagues over their handling of the filibuster. He said he had supported Trump’s call to eliminate it, despite recognizing its potential value to Republicans under Democratic control. Johnson argued that senators should at least have held a rule-change vote requiring 67 votes so members’ positions would be recorded. “But we wouldn’t even do that because we didn’t want our colleagues on record.”