The letter is now filed. Five Republican senators — Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, Rick Scott of Florida, Ted Budd of North Carolina and John Kennedy of Louisiana — signed a letter on Monday to Senate Republican Conference Chairman Tom Cotton demanding that Tuesday's 9 a.m. leadership election be delayed, and two more senators, Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania and Jim Banks of Indiana, publicly backed the call, making seven.
The letter, obtained by reporters on Monday, reads: “Tuesday's result was a stunning defeat, and there are multiple reasons for it. We need to have serious discussions within our conference as to what we can do to improve the outcome in 2028.” It goes on: “Holding leadership elections without engaging in a robust discussion and evaluation of how those running for leadership intend to lead would be political malpractice. It is certainly not the way leadership elections should be conducted in the world's greatest deliberative body.” The five asked that the hour set for the elections instead be given to a full conference discussion, and that the vote wait until every candidate has set out how they would lead the conference and counter the Democrats. Under conference rules, five signatures are enough to force the meeting. Sen. Mike Lee posted the signed letter itself:
McCormick, who is not on the letter, made the same case in his own statement: “One of the things I learned in business and the Army is that after a failure, you have to start with honesty, transparency, and accountability. A week ago, we had the worst election results in decades.” He said he had told Leader John Thune directly that the conference should not move to leadership elections until it has digested and debated the lessons of the midterms: “We need leadership in place fast, but Tuesday is too soon.”
Banks became the seventh senator on Monday: “We need to elect Republican leadership in the Senate, but tomorrow is too soon. Our conference needs to sit down and have a frank conversation about where we fell short, what we stand for, and what we're going to do for the working families who sent us here. Let's have that discussion first. Then we can choose the leaders who will carry out the agenda we agree on.”
Johnson, who organised the letter, closed the day with a warning that he will not take part in a rushed vote: “I simply won't participate in business as usual. An election defeat of this magnitude demands change.” He was reported to be ready to walk out of the room if the election is held on schedule. Thune, who faces no announced challenger, gave no public response on Monday, and Republican aides said the elections were still expected to go ahead on Tuesday — the signatures force the discussion, but the conference itself must still vote on whether to delay.
For Republican voters, what is decided on Tuesday decides who leads their party in a Senate it no longer controls — which bills get fought for, which get traded away, and whether the lessons of a defeat that cost the party its majority are answered with a real change of direction or with the same leadership on the same course. Seven senators are now on record saying the reckoning should come before the coronation.
— Previously posted on Sunday, November 8, 2026 —
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is collecting signatures from his fellow Republican senators to delay the party’s leadership elections, set for Tuesday morning, arguing that after a midterm defeat this heavy, the conference should stop and take stock before it votes. “Our supporters expected us to drain the swamp, but it seems like the swamp won,” Johnson wrote.
Johnson has gathered at least five signatures on a letter to Senate Republican Conference Chairman Tom Cotton requesting a conference meeting to discuss postponing the vote — five being the number that, under conference rules, can force such a meeting. Senators Mike Lee of Utah, Rick Scott of Florida and John Kennedy of Louisiana are among those who have signed or announced their support. In the letter, Johnson and his colleagues called the election result “a stunning defeat” for Republicans and called for immediate changes. His proposal: when senators meet as scheduled on Tuesday, they hold a full discussion first — a postmortem of what happened — and postpone any leadership elections until every candidate for leader has had to say what kind of collaborative governing model they would adopt.
Johnson says leadership votes were traditionally held after the new year until the timing was moved up about two decades ago, and he calls the rush to vote within days — before the final shape of the incoming Senate is even known — the wrong way to choose who leads the party for the next two years. He concedes he does not know whether the effort will succeed. Leader John Thune, who called the elections, is still expected to win another term at the head of the Republican conference; the letter is a measure of how much discontent Tuesday’s result has stirred among conservatives in his own ranks.
The leader these senators choose will decide the Republican agenda in a Senate the party no longer controls — which bills get Republican backing, which Democratic measures get fought, and how hard the party pushes the promises its voters were made, on prices, the border and the size of government. For the voters who expected the swamp drained, this delayed-or-not vote is the first sign of whether their party heard them on Tuesday.
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