Mike Lee joins effort to delay GOP leadership elections after Democrats flip Senate

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. Mike Lee is joining efforts to delay the leadership elections for the Senate Republican conference, instead calling for a party-wide meeting to discuss the midterm election results before looking ahead to the next Congress.

A group of Senate Republicans sent a letter to GOP leadership on Monday officially requesting that leadership elections be postponed until they hold a postmortem of last week's elections, during which Democrats flipped control of both chambers, ending total Republican control of Washington. Five Republicans signed on to the letter led by Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, including Lee and Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Ted Budd of North Carolina, and John Kennedy of Louisiana.

"Senate Republicans should not rush into leadership elections while two races (and along with them, the composition of our conference) remain unresolved," Lee told the Deseret News in a statement. "After last week's stunning losses, we need to pause long enough to develop a plan to move forward. Such a plan should develop with input from all Senate Republicans before we hold leadership elections — not after."

Leadership elections are tentatively scheduled for Tuesday afternoon during Republicans' weekly conference meeting. While the group of Republicans have not openly challenged Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., from seeking the top position, their request signals an internal restlessness after the party's massive losses last week.

"A week ago, we had the worst election results in decades," Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., who did not sign on to the letter but also called for a delay, said in a post on social media. "We need a discussion about what went wrong, how we fix it, what we stand for, and how our agenda must focus on the concerns of the American people."

McCormick said he informed Thune of his concerns and that Tuesday was "too soon" to push ahead with elections.

Thune still intends to run for the party's top leadership position, sources familiar with the matter told the Deseret News.

In the wake of their electoral losses last week, Republicans have been clamoring for an explanation as to why their party's candidates performed so poorly. While several have pointed to the war in Iran and subsequent high gas prices as the main reason, some GOP lawmakers have blamed the Senate for slowing down progress on key party agenda items.

President Donald Trump has also appeared to blame the Senate for Republicans' midterm losses, although he hasn't explicitly said whether Thune should be replaced as party leader.

"We had a bad election because of a few things," Trump told reporters last week. "One thing was not getting things approved in the Senate."

Republicans in the House are also considering new leadership as the top three GOP leaders all face challenges in their internal elections this week. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he would step down from leadership, while Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., are seeking reelection to their top slots.

House GOP leadership elections are also scheduled for Tuesday.

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