The Senate Republican leadership that lost the majority on Tuesday is set to stay in place, and the one senator who twice tried to take the top job will not try again — which leaves the party heading into the minority under the same leaders, with a harder road back. Senator Rick Scott of Florida said on Fox News' "Saturday in America" that he will not challenge John Thune for Republican leader. "I don't want to run again. I've run twice," Scott said. He failed in a 2022 challenge to Mitch McConnell and fell short on the first ballot again after his re-election in 2024.
Asked whether he would support Thune, Scott would not commit. "We'll see what happens. We'll see who else is going to run. I don't know if somebody else is going to run," he said. Thune hopes to continue atop the caucus even after Tuesday's dramatic reversal of fortunes, which leaves Republicans in the minority for the next two years.
Scott instead backed Senator Ron Johnson's push to delay the leadership vote, called for Tuesday, until the conference first decides what it will change. "We have to change something. So what Ron's proposing, which I completely agree with, is let's sit down and decide what we're going to do differently. Then we can decide who's going to be the leader," Scott said. Johnson is asking for what he calls a "fulsome conference discussion" and a chance to hear from leadership candidates about the kind of collaborative governing model they would adopt.
On the weeks that remain, Scott argued Republicans should use every day of the majority they still hold. "What we ought to do is just stay up there until January 3rd or whatever it is when the new Democrats get sworn in, and let's get everything done. Just stay every day — all through Christmas, all through Thanksgiving, all through New Year's, every day. Stay there, get things done," he said.
For ordinary Americans, the argument is over what the Senate does with its last weeks in the majority: every bill passed and every nominee confirmed before January 3 is one the incoming Democratic majority cannot undo on its first day, and the judges and officials confirmed now will serve for years. If the Senate spends that time on a leadership fight instead, the window closes unused.
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