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Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell — already the longest serving GOP leader in Senate history — will extend that run for at least another two years after winning against a longshot challenge by Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott to remove him from power.
Thirty seven senators voted for McConnell. Scott picked up 10 votes and one senator voted present in a secret-ballot election, according to Indiana Sen. Mike Braun who was one of the senators who counted the final votes.
Scott formally launched his bid a day earlier and placed the electoral blame of not gaining enough seats to control the Senate on McConnell even though Scott ran the GOP’s 2022 Senate campaign operation. There has been bad blood between the two senators for some time as they tussled throughout the campaign cycle over candidate recruitment in key races and party messaging.
“If you’re going to access blame for election losses, I don’t know how you trade in the leader for the chairman of [the National Republican Senatorial Committee],” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., “That’s just basic to me.”
The defections signal that McConnell enters the next Congress with a weaker grip on power as newer, younger and more ambitious senators grow increasingly agitated at their party leadership following a disappointing midterm election for the GOP.
“Nobody, not Republicans, not independents, not Democrats in my state are happy with the leadership in Washington.
