Senate Republicans Eliminate Rick Scott from Leadership Contention, Elect Former Trump Adversary

Senate Republicans on Wednesday elected Sen. John Thune of South Dakota as their new leader.

Thune was elected in a second-ballot contest, defeating Sen. John Cornyn of Texas 29 votes to 24, according to Punchbowl News.

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who was mounting a MAGA-based challenge to the established Senate GOP leadership, was eliminated from the running in the first ballot, being the lowest vote-getter, Punchbowl News reported.

THUNE WINS 29-24 over Cornyn

— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) November 13, 2024

NEWS — SECOND BALLOT. Thune and Cornyn advance. Scott was lowest vote getter

— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) November 13, 2024

President-elect Donald Trump did not make a public endorsement in the process.

Thune will replace current Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who has said he would step down as leader at the end of this Congress.

As noted by The Hill, many of Trump’s supporters from outside of the Senate, such as Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy made last-minute pitches for Scott.

Despite the endorsements, even Trump supporters were lining up behind Thune.

““I’d advise [Trump] just to stay out of the race,” Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma said before the vote, according to CNN.

Thune, 63, has been the chamber’s Number Two Republican behind McConnell. He was first elected to the Senate in 2004, NBC News reported.

Trump and Thune clashed after the 2020 election when Thune declined to support Trump’s challenge to now-President Joe Biden’s victory. In December 2020, The Hill reported at the time, Thune predicted the efforts would “go down like a shot dog.”

On Jan. 1, 2021, Trump called for South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem or some other Republican to challenge Thune in the Senate primary in 2022.

Noem declined, and Thune faced only token opposition in the primary. He cruised to re-election in the general election with 70 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press.

Two weeks after the 2020 election was certified, Thune said Trump did people a “disservice” by challenging the results and said Trump bore some responsibility for the Jan . 6, 2021, Capitol incursion.

“The president is, because of the ongoing claims about fraud in the election, got a lot of people very spun up, and I think he did a disservice to people across this country, including many in South Dakota that I’ve heard from who believe that the election was stolen,” Thune told KELO-TV in Sioux Falls in a Jan. 18 interview.

Regarding whether the election was stolen from Trump, Thune concluded, “It was not.”

“The election was won and lost fairly and squarely,” the senator added. “There are always incidents of irregularities and fraud as there are in every election, but nothing on a level that would have changed any outcome in any state.”

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