Senate GOP leadership election: five senators ask to delay Tuesday vote after midterm losses
Five Republican senators want a conference meeting before Tuesday's leadership vote, saying the party should first discuss why it lost the Senate majority.
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A Senate GOP leadership election set for Tuesday 10 November faces growing calls for a delay, with five Republican senators asking for a conference meeting first, Roll Call reported on 9 November 2026. Republicans lost at least seven Senate seats and the majority in last week’s midterms. No public challenger has emerged against Majority Leader John Thune.
Who wants the Senate GOP leadership election delayed
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin led a Monday letter to Senate Conference Chair Tom Cotton asking for a conference discussion at 9 a.m. Tuesday, when the elections were due to begin. Mike Lee, Ted Budd, Rick Scott and John Kennedy also signed. Conference rules require five signatures to call a meeting, and the letter has exactly five. Sens. Jim Banks and Dave McCormick also want a delay but did not sign.
Key numbers
- 5: signatures on the Johnson letter, the number conference rules require to call a conference meeting.
- 7: the minimum number of Senate seats Republicans lost, along with the majority.
- 9 a.m.: the time the elections were set to begin on Tuesday 10 November.
- 2: unsuccessful challenges by Scott, to Mitch McConnell in 2022 and to Thune in 2024.
What the Ron Johnson letter and other senators said
The letter calls the midterm result “a stunning defeat” and says holding the elections without a discussion would be “political malpractice.” McCormick wrote on X, “A week ago, we had the worst election results in decades,” and said the conference should not rush it. Banks called Tuesday’s vote “too soon” and wrote that the conference “needs to sit down and have a frank conversation about where we fell short.”
Scott, who has run for the top job before, told Fox News over the weekend, “I don’t want to run again. I’ve run twice.”
Will John Thune keep his post as the vote goes ahead?
Several Senate GOP aides expect the elections to proceed on Tuesday. They doubt a lengthy conversation would postpone anything and pointed to earlier efforts by some of the same senators to create discord. The Associated Press reported that Thune is expected to retain his job as Republican leader, though in the minority.
The fight matters because the party that picks its leaders after a defeat sets its tone for the two years ahead.
What happens next
Whether the five signatures force a conference meeting before the vote depends on Cotton. The report gives no response from him. For background, read our profile of the US Congress, our report on the US midterm results and the World pages.
Who leads Senate Republicans in the minority shapes how the party handles the lame-duck session and the next two years. Aides still expected the vote to go ahead, and Thune has no declared challenger.