The midterm election results have allowed Democrats to retain their Senate majority, but some Republicans have openly questioned who should lead the party moving forward ahead of a leadership election.
Hawley says McConnell can’t bring GOP back to majority
senator. Josh Hawley told CNN’s Manu Raju that “it’s clear that what we’re doing isn’t working” for a majority.
“It’s been useless for a long time,” he said. “I think you look at independent voters, I mean, we’re not giving them anything, they have no choice. It’s a leadership decision. They don’t want to have an agenda.”
Hawley added that he would vote for the senator. Rick Scott would challenge Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell for leadership if he did, and reiterated his view that leadership elections should be delayed until after the Georgia runoff.
Cruz on leadership election: We need a leader who ‘won’t step down immediately’
senator. Ted Cruz has criticized the Senate GOP leadership for “surrendering to the Democrats” over the past two years, sharply criticizing their messaging tactics this cycle.
“I believe we should have a leader who really listens to the meeting and who is willing to stand up and fight and not turn over immediately,” Cruz said.
“Our current leadership thinks that the way you win elections is you don’t stand for anything, you don’t have an agenda, you don’t have a plan. Instead, the only thing you stand up and say is, ‘Well, I’m not a Democrat . So vote for me. You know what? Election Day shows that we need more than not to be Democrats,” he said.
Cruz said it would be “completely crazy” to hold a leadership election tomorrow, pending a post-mortem analysis of the results.
“I’ll tell you this, I believe if we don’t delay the election, I think we’re likely to see someone running against Mitch McConnell,” he added.
Time for a change in RNC chair, says ex-Trump chief of staff
Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s former acting chief of staff, told CNN’s Kate Bolduin that he does not support Rona McDaniel’s bid for re-election as Republican National Committee chair.
“When I worked in the White House, we got along great and I personally have no complaints about her. But we have a record of failing when she’s in charge. Once again, we failed in 2018. We failed in 2020 We didn’t win the game like we did last week,” Mulvaney said Tuesday.
Mulvaney’s comments came amid reports that McDaniel told RNC members on a conference call Monday that she intends to seek re-election, according to people familiar with the matter.
Thune expects ‘candid dialogue’ at GOP lunch
Senate Republican Whip John Thune said he expected Republican conference members to have a “candid conversation” at Tuesday’s luncheon to assess why their election results were lackluster and begin deciding on their elected leadership team for the next Congress .
“I hope that the leaders will be able to make their voices heard as we have always done. But I also hope that many of our members – who in most cases tend to speak out at these lunches – will speak up today as well. We will see ,” Thune told reporters at the Capitol. “I think that’s great. We need these honest conversations, certainly within the family, because we think about planning for the future, learning from the past, understanding the past but preparing for the future.”
Thune also said he hoped former President Donald Trump would wait until after Georgia’s Senate runoff to announce another presidential bid, which he is expected to do tonight.