McCormick joins push to delay Senate GOP leadership vote: "Tuesday is too soon"

Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania said Sunday night that Senate Republicans should not hold Tuesday's leadership elections, joining the effort to delay the vote after last week's midterm losses.

"One of the things I learned in business and the Army is that after a failure, you have to start with honesty, transparency, and accountability," McCormick said in a statement posted on X. "A week ago, we had the worst election results in decades. 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."

"As I've shared with Leader Thune, I don't believe we should move to leadership elections until we have digested and debated the lessons of the midterms and how to move forward," he said. "We need leadership in place fast, but Tuesday is too soon. I know it's been the practice to go straight to leadership elections in recent years, but we should not rush it."

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin gathered signatures on Friday for a letter forcing a conference meeting on postponing the vote, with backing from Sens. Mike Lee, Rick Scott and John Kennedy. John Thune is running for Republican leader again and has no declared challenger; he would become minority leader when Democrats take control of the Senate in January.