Senate Republicans meet behind closed doors on Tuesday, November 10, to decide whether South Dakota Senator John Thune stays on as their leader — a leadership election held just one week after midterm elections that cost the party its Senate majority and left senior Republicans openly arguing over whether the vote should happen at all.
Source: Associated Press
Thune is expected to be re-elected: he remains popular inside the conference and is running unopposed. But senators who returned to Washington on Monday for the first time since an election wipeout that cost Republicans at least seven Senate seats say it is too soon to simply endorse the status quo, and a formal push to delay the secret-ballot vote has gathered enough support to force the question onto Tuesday's agenda.
Source: Associated Press
"We need to have some real soul-searching," said Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, who has circulated a letter to the conference asking for a delay in the closed-door leadership elections. "We can't just continue on business as usual — that kind of defeat demands change." Johnson conceded, however, that there is no rival on the ballot: "That's part of our problem — who would want the job?" he joked to a reporter. "Do you want it?"
Source: Associated Press
The push to slow down
Johnson's letter, addressed to Senate Republican Conference Chairman Tom Cotton of Arkansas, calls holding the elections so soon after a "stunning defeat" an act of "political malpractice." Johnson gathered at least the five colleague signatures that conference rules require to force a conference-wide meeting on postponing the vote, and said he would keep collecting names. The letter does not itself postpone anything — Republican senators would still have to vote to change the schedule when they gather on Tuesday morning.
Source: Political.org
Utah Senator Mike Lee, one of the senators who signed Johnson's letter, argues any leadership contest should wait until the two outstanding Senate races — in Alaska and Mississippi — are decided, since it is not yet clear whether Republican Senators Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi will be returning next year. Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick said over the weekend that Republicans should not choose a leader until the lessons of the election have been "digested and debated," and Indiana Senator Jim Banks said the party needs to "sit down and have a frank conversation about where we fell short." The discontent was sharpened when Alex Bruesewitz, an adviser to President Donald Trump, publicly questioned whether Thune should remain leader.
Source: Associated Press
Thune's case — and the Trump factor
Thune replaced Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell as Republican leader in early 2025 and has spent much of the last two years navigating a president who has often been at odds with the Senate. While backing Trump on most policy, Thune refused to change Senate rules and scrap the filibuster to pass voting legislation requiring proof of citizenship for all voters — a stand that frustrated Trump and angered parts of the president's base. Even so, Trump hosted Thune and his family at the White House in October, and on Monday called him "a very fine man," while saying the leadership election is "up to the Senate."
Source: Associated Press
Thune's allies say his habit of hearing out different viewpoints before major decisions — a marked contrast with McConnell's style — has kept him broadly supported. Oklahoma Senator Jim Lankford said Thune "has widespread support" and backed holding the elections on Tuesday, when many incoming Republican senators are already in town for freshman orientation, adding of the leader's job: "It is a pretty complicated role to be able to manage. No one wants that job." Thune himself said the conference would have "a very fulsome, robust conversation about where we go from here and then we'll see what the consensus of the conference is," adding: "Ultimately that's a decision made by Republican senators."
Source: Associated Press
In his first Senate floor remarks since the election, which he called a "tough night," Thune previewed his pitch to colleagues: Republicans will be willing to work with Democrats, he said, but "the American people are not looking for socialist government and leftist fantasies."
Democrats have a leadership question of their own
Across the aisle, Democrats — who could hold as many as 56 seats next year — are having quieter versions of the same conversation about whether New York Senator Chuck Schumer is still the right person to lead them after 12 years as their leader. Schumer has drawn critics on both the left and right of his caucus, and Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen and Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin have both considered challenging him, though neither has announced a run. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who ran the Democrats' Senate campaign arm, predicted Schumer will win enough support, saying he not only won the Senate back but "cares deeply, and he understands politics well."
Source: Associated Press
What happens next
The Republican conference gathers Tuesday morning in the Old Senate Chamber for the closed-door, secret-ballot elections, which also cover the other party leadership posts. Senators can still move to delay the vote when they meet; if they proceed, Thune is expected to be confirmed as leader of a minority conference. Whoever leads will immediately face a crowded lame-duck agenda: funding the government, confirming as many of Trump's remaining nominees as possible before the new Congress begins on January 3, and finishing work such as the bipartisan energy permitting bill that advanced in the Senate on Monday evening.
Source: Associated Press