GOP blows off Trumps bid to oust McConnell – POLITICO

Voters care more about what you do as a senator, what you bring up, what you voted against, how you fight for it, said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who won in 2020 with Trumps endorsement and believes McConnell is doing a good job.

The former president, who remains critical of McConnell for declining to help him overturn the results of the 2020 election, has ramped up his calls for the Kentucky Republicans ouster from leadership in recent weeks. This week alone, Trump issued several official statements lambasting McConnell, saying the GOP leader saved the Democrats by striking a deal to allow them to raise the debt ceiling, which caused some consternation within the Senate GOP.

How this guy can stay as Leader is beyond comprehensionthis is coming not only from me, but from virtually everyone in the Republican Party, Trump wrote Thursday. He is a disaster and should be replaced as Leader ASAP!

The barrage of attacks on McConnell have been amplified by Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, who have also gone after the GOP leader on air this fall. Carlson, during a segment last week, announced that his show would begin regularly highlighting problems with McConnell, whom he described as an instrument of the left.

Still, anti-McConnell sentiment has yet to become a dominant theme on the campaign trail ahead of 2022 elections. Republican campaign staffers in multiple states said their candidates have so far received only one or two questions at events about their support for McConnell far short of a rallying cry from the conservative base.

Im sure some consultants telling them youve got to be anti-establishment, said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). I dont think most people are going to vote for a candidate based on who they are going to vote for leader.

To date, just two prominent GOP Senate candidates have called for McConnells ouster Kelly Tshibaka, an Alaska Republican who is challenging incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and Eric Greitens, the former governor of Missouri who is running for a seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Roy Blunt.

Youre going to see a whole lot of leaders in the Senate, like me, not support Mitch McConnell for leadership because hes anything but a leader, said Tshibaka, who is challenging one of Trumps top targets in the chamber.

Tshibaka, who made the declaration Monday on Steve Bannons War Room podcast, is so far the only Trump-endorsed candidate to publicly reject McConnell. Greitens, who in September became the first 2022 Senate candidate to vow to oppose McConnell as leader, also did it on Bannons popular conservative show. Trump has so far not endorsed in the Missouri race.

In an interview, Murkowski said she supports McConnells leadership and disparaged Tshibakas tactics: Theres probably a national playbook for campaigns; I dont think Alaskans play by a national playbook.

Aside from Tshibaka, Trump-endorsed Senate candidates elsewhere have declined to take the bait on the McConnell issue, suggesting Trumps now yearlong crusade against the Senate Republican leader has failed to emerge as an effective litmus test in Senate primaries.

Thats despite Trumps status as the de facto leader of the Republican Party and his widespread popularity among GOP voters 83 percent of whom have a favorable opinion of him. McConnells favorability rating, by contrast, is 41 percent, according to a new poll from POLITICO and Morning Consult.

In North Carolinas Senate race, Trump-backed Rep. Ted Budd has repeatedly declined to answer whether he supports McConnell. In a statement to POLITICO this week, his campaign adviser, Jonathan Felts, said Budd is focused on winning.

Our only thought on future leadership elections is that we want to do our part to ensure that the Republican Leader is the majority leader, not the minority leader, so we can stop Joe Bidens liberal agenda, Felts said.

Meanwhile, the campaign of Budds Republican opponent, former Gov. Pat McCrory, openly praises McConnells leadership.

Gov. McCrory had a great discussion with Sen. McConnell before deciding to run for the Senate, and he will absolutely support him for leader, said Jordan Shaw, an adviser on McCrorys campaign.

McConnell declined to comment for this story. When asked Thursday about Trump's push to replace him as leader, the Kentucky Republican declined to engage, only telling reporters good try. His advisers say the GOP leader is only focused on winning back the majority and point out that no one has ever voted against McConnell as leader, a position he has held since 2007.

The last senator to pledge to vote against a party leader, Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, ended up not opposing Chuck Schumer because there was no alternative to consider.

Trump-endorsed Senate candidate Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) whom McConnell opposed in a 2017 Senate primary told POLITICO earlier this month he wouldnt rule out supporting McConnell for leader, an election the Republican conference has every two years. But he also made clear McConnell is not his favorite Republican, and he would support McConnell if he's the most conservative.

There are some that he's more conservative than, and some not, he added.Tuberville said Brooks is seeing from the outside of what were doing he doesnt see the inside of the meetings and the talks and the strategy and all that.

McConnell's strength in the GOP was on display at a party lunch on Thursday when he was praised by roughly half the caucus for his leadership, according to a senior Republican aide briefed on the gathering. Conservative Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) touted McConnell's decision to hold open a Supreme Court seat in 2016, while moderates Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) also delivered warm words for McConnell.

Other Republicans trying to distinguish themselves in the crowded Missouri primary including Rep. Billy Long, a longtime Trump ally who is angling for an endorsement have declined to join Greitens in opposing McConnell, even as the former governor has tried to make it a central issue in the campaign.

We believe every candidate running that wants to call themselves MAGA should be asked the question, said Dylan Johnson, Greitens campaign manager. Are they going to support Mitch McConnell or not?

Long said in a recent interview that he wouldn't take that same step.

If Republicans are in the majority and the only one on the Republican side is Mitch McConnell, you can't tell me that Eric Greitens is not going to vote for him, Long said. I mean, it's a great talking point. I'll give it to Eric.

State Attorney General Eric Schmitts campaign did not respond to an inquiry about his position on the GOP leader, while Rep. Vicky Hartzler said in a statement she was not beholden to anyone in Washington and would vote for leaders who stand up against the liberal madness spewing from a toxic woke minority.

In Ohio, where Trump has also yet to endorse in the contentious Republican primary, only frontrunner Josh Mandels campaign responded to POLITICOs inquiry about his position on McConnell.

His spokesperson pointed to Mandels previous comment about the issue, where he questioned whether anyone was running against McConnell and said he wouldnt entertain hypothetical situations that dont even exist in reality.

J.D. Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy who has recanted his past remarks disparaging Trump and has sought to portray himself as a born-again MAGA devotee, in September told conservative podcast host Jack Murphy he had misgivings about McConnell continuing as leader, but came short of vowing to oppose him.

I have no idea who should be the majority leader of the Senate, Vance said on the podcast. I think that McConnell has clearly shown hes a little, sometimes a little out of touch with where the base is.

Later in the interview, Vance said it was time we move beyond the very old leadership class thats dominated the Republican Party for a long time, though his campaign did not clarify to POLITICO whether he intends to actually vote against McConnell who personally encouraged Vance to run for Senate in 2018 if elected.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said candidate announcements about opposing McConnell are designed for an audience of one: Trump.

Ive been through a few leadership elections here, and Ive seen a lot of people on the outside try to influence those elections, Cornyn said. And Ive never seen it work because people are making their own evaluation based on a lot of different criteria about who they want their leaders to be.

Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.

Read the original post:

GOP blows off Trumps bid to oust McConnell - POLITICO