WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans were meeting Tuesday for a "robust conversation" on their future and to decide whether to keep South Dakota Sen. John Thune as their leader, just a week after steep losses in the midterm elections that cost them their majority.
Thune is expected to be reelected, given that he remains popular with his GOP colleagues and is running unopposed. But some Republicans who returned to Washington on Monday for the first time since the election wipeout that cost them at least seven seats said it's too soon to endorse the status quo.
“We need to have some real soul-searching,” said Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who circulated a letter to the conference asking for a delay in the closed-door, secret-ballot leadership elections. “We can't just continue on business as usual — that kind of defeat demands change.”
Still, Johnson conceded that there's no one else on the ballot.
“That's part of our problem, who would want the job?” he said, turning to a reporter and joking, “Do you want it?”
The angst comes as the party is just beginning to reckon with what the election results mean for GOP lawmakers and how soon they can try to rebuild their ranks. Two additional races remain uncalled in Alaska and Mississippi that could further deplete their numbers.
The Republican leadership declined to move the elections, which include contests for other party leaders as well and are held in the small Old Senate Chamber just down the hall from the large one used Tuesday. But senators could still seek a vote to delay them.
Thune said on Monday they will have a “very fulsome, robust conversation about where we go from here and then we’ll see what the consensus of the conference is.”
“Ultimately that’s a decision made by Republican senators,” Thune said.
Despite some critics, Thune has respect from colleagues
Thune, who replaced Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as leader in early 2025, has spent much of the last two years navigating President Donald Trump, who has often been at odds with the Senate.
While backing up Trump on most policy, Thune has refused to change Senate rules and scrap the filibuster to pass voting legislation that would require proof of citizenship for all voters — a position that frustrated Trump and enraged some in the president's political base.
But Trump hosted Thune and his family at the White House in October. He said Monday that the GOP leader is “a very fine man.” The election is “up to the Senate,” Trump said.
Thune has made it a point to hear out different viewpoints before he makes major decisions and has maintained close relationships with the rank and file — a different approach from his predecessor, McConnell.
Thune “has widespread support” among Republican senators, said Oklahoma Sen. Jim Lankford, who said he supports having the elections on Tuesday when many of the new GOP senators are already in town for freshman orientation.
"It's a pretty complicated role to be able to manage,” Lankford said. “No one wants that job.”
Walking into the meeting, South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds said most senators are ready to move forward. It is time to have “leadership in place,” he said.
Republicans push to delay leadership elections
Still, Johnson and others in his conference say Tuesday’s leadership election is too soon.
The midterm election was “an incredible repudiation of the focus of this Congress for the last two years," said Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, citing reductions to Medicaid and rural hospital funding in the sweeping tax cuts bill that Republicans pushed through last year. Hawley voted for the legislation after criticizing it.
Hawley said he hasn't “heard any acknowledgement of that yet from leadership, which I think is extremely alarming,” and he also hasn't heard from Thune personally.
"I want to hear that we are going to have a different direction," including ways to lower costs for Americans, Hawley said.
Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick in a statement over the weekend said Republicans shouldn’t choose a leader until the lessons of the election have been “digested and debated.” Indiana Sen. Jim Banks said Republicans need to “sit down and have a frank conversation about where we fell short.”
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, one of a few senators who signed Johnson's letter asking for a delay, said any leadership contest should come after the two outstanding Senate elections in Alaska and Mississippi are decided.
Neither of those races has yet been called, so it’s unclear if Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi will be returning to the Senate next year.
Thune looks to the next Congress
The soul-searching comes as lawmakers are trying to wrap up the year's work — funding the government and seeing if there are some issues where they can work together, including an energy permitting bill that moved forward on a bipartisan vote Monday evening.
Republicans will try to confirm as many of Trump’s nominees as they can before the new Congress begins in January, and Democrats will strategize on how to best keep up their momentum into next year.
Thune is expected to emphasize his collaborative approach to his colleagues and point out what they did get done in the last year — including the tax and spending cuts legislation and an attempt at reining in the chaotic annual spending process.
In his first remarks on the Senate floor since the election, which he called a “tough night," Thune previewed his pitch to his colleagues who are looking for answers on how they will navigate the minority.
Republicans will be willing to work with Democrats, Thune said Monday, but “the American people are not looking for socialist government and leftist fantasies.”
Despite gains, Democrats are having similar conversations
Across the aisle, Democrats who could hold as many as 56 seats next year are having private discussions about whether New York Sen. Chuck Schumer is still the right person to lead them.
Schumer has found critics on the left and the right of his caucus as candidates from both sides declined to say in the campaign whether they would support him as leader. Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin have both considered challenging Schumer, but neither has announced a run.
Many in the party have said it’s time for generational change after Schumer’s 12 years as leader. Still, Schumer appears to have widespread support from his members after carrying his party to massive wins in Tuesday’s elections.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Schumer’s New York colleague and the head of the Democratic Senate campaign arm, predicted that he will win enough support. Schumer not only won the Senate back but he “cares deeply, and he understands politics well," she said.