A week ago, Republicans failed to regain control of the Senate from Democrats and are poised to win only a slim majority in the House of Representatives, as the “red wave” of sweeping victories they saw coming on the eve of the election failed to materialize. implemented. In a secret ballot on Tuesday, Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader of the House, was endorsed to be his party’s nominee for speaker by a margin of 188 to 31 votes, but so many walkouts are causing problems ahead of a formal vote in early January, when he will need support from 218 lawmakers for the top job. “The American people want us to turn the page. They don’t want excuses or performance, they want action and results,” Andy Biggs, the Republican congressman from Arizona who was challenging McCarthy, tweeted before the vote. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida, close to Trump, said he would try to oust Mitch McConnell, the veteran senator from Kentucky, from his role as party leader in the upper chamber of Congress in a vote that will be on Wednesday. “The status quo is broken and a big change is needed. It’s time for new leadership in the Senate that unites Republicans to advance a bold conservative agenda,” he tweeted Tuesday afternoon after telling colleagues at a closed-door lunch. The rift among Republicans has widened as allies of Trump, who is set to announce a new presidential bid on Tuesday night, blame party leaders for the poor showing of many of their preferred candidates in the midterms. “This election was the funeral for the Republican Party as we know it,” Josh Hawley, the senator from Missouri, told reporters on Tuesday. “And the voters have made that clear.” Recommended On the other hand, many other Republicans have accused Trump of sabotaging their party’s political appeal by endorsing election-denying extremist candidates and aggressively campaigning for them in the latter stages of the campaign, leading to a backlash among moderates and independent voters. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, McConnell said the “chaos, negativity and over-the-top attacks” associated with some candidates had “scared” voters. In the Senate, several Republicans, including Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have called for a delay in the leadership election and suggested they may well support Scott. “Personally, I think it’s crazy, it would be crazy to have a leadership election now and just re-elect the exact same leadership,” Cruz told Fox Business on Tuesday. However, McConnell still has strong support from many other senators. “I’ve got the votes, I’m going to be elected, the only question is whether we’re going to do it sooner or later,” McConnell insisted. He has clashed with Scott this year over the party’s handling of the midterm elections, particularly since the Florida senator chaired the party’s upper house campaign committee and was responsible for fundraising, communications and selection of candidates for a series of matches that ended in defeat. “There were many, many disappointments,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is a potential challenger to Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination but has not weighed in on the leadership contest, said on Tuesday. “This is the reality. It was an extremely underwhelming, disappointing performance, especially given that [president Joe] Biden’s policies are overwhelmingly unpopular.”
