- U.S. Senator Rick Scott steps in the race for the Senate Republican leader.
U.S. Senator Rick Scott wrote his colleagues a letter in which he announced that he plans to run for Senate Republican leader, aiming to succeed current head Mitch McConnell, who said he would step down from that role after the November elections.
Scott, a 71-year-old party hardliner, signaled in a recent letter that he would aim to lead the caucus on a path more closely aligned with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, with whom McConnell was sometimes at odds.
“Now we need dramatic change,” he stated in the letter. “Senate Republican leadership would further reflect the views and aspirations of most Republican voters. It’s also no secret that Republican voters think we don’t fight hard enough for the issues that concern them.
Scott, who has represented Florida since 2019, will once again face off against Senator John Thune, the current No. 2 Senate Republican, and Senator John Cornyn, a former whip.
For now, Democrats hold a 51-49 Senate majority, but Republicans still have a pretty decent shot at retaking control of the chamber in November, when Democrats will be defending multiple seats in states that voted for Trump.
McConnell, 82, is the longest-serving party leader in the entire Senate.. In February, after multiple incidents in which he froze up in public after suffering a serious head injury in March 2023, he said he was preparing to step down from leadership.
McConnel played quite a role in helping Trump cement a 6-3 conservative majority in the Supreme Court, paving the way for first-time rulings cheered by many conservatives for ending the recognition of a constitutional right to abortion and also expanding gun rights.
That belied McConnell’s personal opposition to Trump, especially since the then-president’s conduct before the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. McConnell also expressed his position against what he described as a rising tide of isolationism in the Republican Party and was a vehement supporter of more aid for Ukraine.
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