The race to be leader of the Senate Republicans has finally concluded.
On the first vote, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) was ruled out of the race to replace Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the Senate.
In a secret vote held Wednesday morning, none of the three candidates for the next GOP leader got more than half of the votes cast. That means senators will go to a second round, where the person with the fewest votes will be eliminated by conference rules.
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) received and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) advanced with Scott eliminated.
After the second ballot of voting, Thune has been selected as the Senate Republican leader.
Earlier this year, McConnell revealed that he’s “not leaving the Senate” and that he’s focused on combating the “isolationist movement” within the Republican Party.
During an interview with WHAS radio host Terry Meiners, McConnell vowed to use his remaining time in the Senate to hit back against GOP colleagues who aim to rein in U.S. support for foreign allies such as Israel and Ukraine.
Despite his plans to step down as party leader, McConnell said, “I’m not leaving the Senate.” He added, “I’m particularly involved in actually fighting back against the isolationist movement in my own party and so many others as well.”
McConnell mentioned Ukraine’s fight against Russia, a cause to which the US has allocated tens of billions of dollars.
“The symbol, lately, is ‘are we gonna help Ukraine or not?’ And I think it’s extremely important that we do that,” McConnell said.
