Several Senate Republicans Call for Delaying Leadership Election

Several Senate Republicans are pushing to delay the party’s leadership elections scheduled for next week following the GOP’s midterms defeat, a move that may open the door to a potential challenge against John Thune.

By Aidan Williams

Published: 2026-11-08T05:17:24+08:00

Several Senate Republicans are pushing to delay the party’s leadership elections scheduled for next week following the GOP’s midterms defeat, a move that may open the door to a potential challenge against John Thune.

Florida Senator Rick Scott expressed support for holding a meeting to discuss postponing next week’s vote, saying that Republicans had to “come up with a plan first.”

“In business, what do you do? You come up with your plan, and then you hire people to do that plan,” Scott said Saturday on Fox News.

The senator refrained from saying whether he had signed a letter written by Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson calling for a Republican conference meeting to discuss a delay.

Johnson needs at least five signatures to call a conference meeting. Johnson said Saturday on Fox News that he has enough signatures for one, but only John Kennedy of Louisiana and Mike Lee of Utah have confirmed signing the letter so far.

Leadership elections are set for Nov. 10, and Thune is so far running unopposed for the Senate Minority Leader role in the next Congress.

“I’m not sure anybody wants the job,” Johnson said in the Fox News interview. “We ought to have robust, soul-searching discussions in our conference.”