A letter from Sen. Ron Johnson is making its way around Republican offices that would force a postponement of Senate leadership elections that are slated for next Tuesday.
🚨 BREAKING: Sen. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA) has just SIGNED ON to postpone the Senate Leadership elections for John Thune on Tuesday, so they can actually figure out who should lead Even JOHN KENNEDY is hesitant... Sen. RICK SCOTT backs the effort from Sen. Ron Johnson, along with Mike Lee Needs 5 SIGNATURES! 👏🏻 "I have signed Sen. Ron Johnson’s letter to postpone Senate Republican leadership elections next Tuesday. Ron needs 5 signatures." — Kennedy We need to make the SMART choice here rather than rush in barely a week post-midterms And Senate Republicans should spend this time working hard to get everything done before Dems take over!
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 7, 2026
I have signed Sen. Ron Johnson’s letter to postpone Senate Republican leadership elections next Tuesday. Ron needs 5 signatures.
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) November 7, 2026
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is gathering signatures to postpone the leadership vote in the Senate. As of right now, he only has 5 signatures. Contact your Republican Senators & ask them to join Sen. Johnson’s letter.
— ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) November 7, 2026
🚨 NOW: Sen. Ron Johnson is immediately pushing to DELAY the Senate Leadership election of John Thune to soul-search and find a way forward, rather than RUSH in to just choose Thune again "I'm not sure anybody else wants the job. Who would want it right now? I think we ought to delay these elections! We ought to have robust, soul-searching discussions in our conference!" "Republicans have to recommit ourselves to limited government, lower spending. Unfortunately, now Democrats got a lot of leverage here." Thune is likely to CRUISE to being re-selected if elections happen days from now as scheduled And he'd become IMMEDIATE Senate Minority Leader, flipping positions with Chuck Schumer Sadly, Dems are going to have a 56-seat majority. Reconciliation, they can ram a LOT through, only to be met by Trump's veto pen
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 7, 2026
Sens. John Kennedy, Rick Scott, and Mike Lee, have all confirmed their support for the effort. Kennedy revealed that the letter needs five co-signers for the election to be stalled.
Senate GOP rules contemplate leadership elections occurring between January 3rd & January 10th. They’ve often been held earlier than that, but perhaps Senate Republicans should assess leadership candidates based on how they lead the conference over the next few weeks while we still have the majority—especially while the full membership of the next conference is still being determined.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) November 7, 2026
Vast numbers of Republicans are calling for Sen. John Thune to step down from his leadership position in light of the midterm defeat for the GOP. Speaker Mike Johnson, despite his effectiveness at securing numerous successful votes with an extraordinarily slim majority, has previously announced that he would not seek to be the party’s minority leader heading into the next Congress.
🚨Report: Senate Majority Leader John Thune plans to run for another term as the Republican Leader in the United States Senate https://t.co/EL5Dj6ZgcP
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) November 6, 2026
BREAKING: House Speaker Mike Johnson will not run for House Minority Leader in wake of GOP wipeout last night. He just informed staff on a call, per sources to @FoxNews. Jim Jordan will run for House Minority Leader, per sources.
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) November 4, 2026
Rick Scott, who narrowly missed out on a successful leadership bid after the 2024 election, will not seek leadership this cycle.
Should the letter fail to receive sufficient signatures, the pool of interested candidates will likely be limited.