Mitch McConnell Comes Out on Top

The Senate minority leader predicted he would retain leadership of Senate Republicans despite a challenge from Rick Scott. He was right.

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Sen. Joni Ernst looks on as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell smiles during a news conference. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell emerged from the Old Senate Chamber on Wednesday, the Kentucky Republican offered a thumbs-up to the flashing cameras nearby. 

He had just overcome Sen. Rick Scott’s challenge to remain Republican leader in the Senate by a vote of 36-10. One senator voted present. “I’m pretty proud of 37-10,” he told reporters, flanked by his new leadership team.

The challenge to McConnell was largely symbolic—expressing frustration from a small wing of Senate Republicans but ultimately futile in unseating McConnell as leader. It’s unclear what the dust-up means for the conference’s cohesion, with at least two more years of being the minority party in the Senate.

That the vote was held Wednesday was a McConnell victory in itself: Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas had sought to delay it until after the runoff elections in Georgia, but Republicans voted 32-16 in favor of holding the elections as scheduled. 

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  1. Avatar photo
    Rajeev

    Not surprising anyone who has listened to Rick Scott speak knows he has the personality of a dead rat. That being said, it makes sense for him to position himself if Trump wins re-election in 2024. Republicans are likely to win the senate regardless of Presidential outcome. The one presidential candidate willing to go to war with McConnell is Donald Trump.

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  2. Johnnyberge

    Not surprised at all. Mitch has outshone his rivals in terms of mastery of the process and holding his caucus together. Of course he only needed a majority of Republican senators to win. Counter that to McCarthy's need to get 218 votes, or about 97 percent of Republican representatives. And McCarthy has a lot more loose canons in the House to contend with. Not to mention his leadership skills are not noteworthy.

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  3. Raymondbrosterhous

    If we momentarily ignore our partisan inclinations, we can see that McConnell and Pelosi have been the best two tacticians in the Congress for years. Schumer and McCarthy . . . . not so much.

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    Rjosephpaquette

    I think this was about Rick Scott positioning himself as the heir, not trying to be king.

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    Vlad M.

    Poor Scott tried to take down Cocaine Mitch. So naive.

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  6. Avatar photo
    Mattjabour

    "I don't think it has any meaning whatsoever."
    Man, talk about one final insult.

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  7. DTruitt

    Scott seems to be one of those unfortunates who banks everything on a coup attempt against the incumbent power, and then it fails. In dictatorships that pretty much always gets that guy or gal and their compatriots murdered. In our democracy, it gets your influence eliminated. From a political influence perspective, it seems that Scott made a grave error, perhaps assuming that Trump would continue his reign of error over the GOP, and that McConnell would be the loser in a contest for control of the party through 2024.

    Conventional wisdom may have suggested that that was the correct reading, as most in the media, and certainly amongst the Dems, assumed that 2024 would be a repeat of 2020, or perhaps, with a change at the top of the Dem ticket, which would assure another four years of Dems in the White House. Now, to their horror, it is dawning on the Dems and their media handmaidens that Trump is vastly weaker than they assumed, and that 2024 is going to be a real race again, no matter which Pub wrests the nomination away from Trump.

    The big loser, aside from Trump and Scott, is likely to be Joe Biden - the long knives are out for his removal from the ticket, where the 2024 race will no longer be a choice between the lesser of two incoherent geezers.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Baldwindan

      Best thing to happen to Democrats would be DeSantis knocking Trump out of the primary and beating Joe Biden in 2024. That would give us time and space to build our portfolio of credible candidates, honing them against a competent GOP administration.

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      1. Acre00

        Honestly, I really hope the Democrats do. The last primary election was a mix of undercooked and crazy. I hope they develop their stable to include a lot more experienced, credible, non-crazy candidates like Klobuchar

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  8. Avatar photo
    Iwasacrookedlawyer

    The audit of the NRSC is needed. News reports during the campaign suggested funds were very poorly deployed. Scott was a disaster as NRSC chair. His performance there indicates why he was not fit to replace McConnell.

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    1. Bdecicco2001

      They gave their money to a guy who stole $1.5 billion, and are surprised that he made a mere 1/3 billion $ disappear?

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