Senate Republicans are about to do something they haven’t done in 18 years: pick a new leader.
Starting at 9:30 a.m., the GOP Conference will meet privately in the Old Senate Chamber to choose a successor to Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history.
The stakes are tremendously high for Senate Minority Whip John Thune, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). With President-elect Donald Trump pushing GOP lawmakers to hit the ground running in January, the new Senate majority leader will be in the middle of just about everything during the 119th Congress.
As the current No. 2 Senate Republican, Thune is seen as the frontrunner and the more dynamic candidate. Cornyn preceded Thune as whip and is up for reelection in 2026, and he’s touted his impressive campaign war chest and legislative dealmaking. Scott just won reelection and is carrying the mantle of the conference’s most conservative members. There’s also an intense pro-Scott online pressure campaign from MAGA media figures.
All three have pledged their loyalty to Trump while arguing they’re the best choice to turn his agenda into reality.
Here’s what we know about who’s doing nominating speeches for the candidates:
— Thune: Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.).
— Scott: Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.).
— Cornyn: Cornyn’s office declined to comment.
— Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.): Sen.-elect Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) are formally nominating Barrasso, who’s running unopposed for the majority whip job. Banks is also speaking on behalf of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in his bid to be the No. 3 Senate Republican against Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).
Zooming out: Regardless of who wins, the Senate could look and act differently next year — due in large part to Scott and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) banging the drum for years about the need for a complete overhaul of the leadership structure.
Both Thune and Cornyn, close McConnell allies, have embraced many of the same reforms that Scott has proposed, although to a somewhat lesser degree.
“I give Rick Scott lots of credit for lots of things around here,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who supports Thune. “Quite honestly, I think everybody’s sympathetic to Rick’s arguments, I really do. He is forcing the issue.”
While many Senate Republicans see Thune and Cornyn as interchangeable, there are key differences between the two. Cornyn has backed term limits for the GOP leader job, while Thune believes that should be a conference-wide decision. They also have different styles, but both have been working for years to develop the relationships necessary to win a leadership race.
Scott’s supporters say it’s long past time for GOP leaders to be more attentive to the concerns of rank-and-file senators. That means taking input from the entire conference before reaching a decision, not bringing up last-minute votes or pushing massive appropriations packages, and — perhaps most importantly — facilitating an open amendment process.
Yet in fairness to McConnell, today’s dysfunctional Senate reflects the growing partisanship of the country. Compromise is a dirty word. McConnell and other party leaders say they’ve been forced to use heavy-handed tactics because some senators are more interested in scoring points on social media than governing.
At a candidate forum Tuesday night, Republicans aired their grievances about the current state of the Senate. They asked pointed questions of the candidates on everything from policy matters to campaign spending. This hasn’t been the case for past leadership elections.
“I mean, McConnell had this stuff just all cooked where you have the election, come back in here, bam, you vote right away,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a Scott backer and longtime McConnell antagonist, said after the forum.
Challenges: The leadership election isn’t a magical fix. There are still deep disagreements among senators over the amount of power party leaders should wield. And whoever wins will find it extremely difficult to follow through on some of their commitments — even the more modest ones.
Take Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), for example. Tillis has long backed McConnell’s view that delegating too much power to the rank-and-file could make the Senate even more dysfunctional. As a result, some senators believe it will be difficult for whoever becomes majority leader — including Thune or Cornyn, whose reform proposals are more modest — to put their commitments into practice.
“The leaders do their very best to get people involved,” Tillis said. “[But] if we’re intellectually honest with ourselves, a lot of the reasons why things collapse is we can’t get agreement from our own side.”
More from Tillis:
Yet the biggest challenge for whoever wins the leadership race will be dealing with Trump, who has a penchant for fueling chaos and is already signaling his intent to send up controversial nominees for top posts.
News: Republicans from the House and Senate Budget Committees met on Tuesday to talk about plans for a reconciliation package. The GOP is planning to pass a major tax bill in the first 100 days of the new Trump presidency. The conversation was largely a big-picture discussion about what Republicans are looking at for reconciliation, according to a source with knowledge of the meeting.
Also: Has one Senate Republican issued a statement backing Trump’s pick of Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary? Buckle up for a difficult confirmation process.
