Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell repeated a pledge Tuesday to run for another term as GOP leader, a position he has held since 2007.
McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who turns 80 next month, chuckled at a reporter’s question about his future plans as speculation has grown over who might succeed him.
RON JOHNSON WILL SEEK THIRD TERM
“I’m going to be running again for leader later this year,” McConnell said.
Talk about a new GOP leader has grown in recent weeks while Senate Minority Whip John Thune, the No. 2 Republican, mulled whether to run for a fourth term.
Thune, who turned 61 last week, has been viewed as a probable successor to McConnell, but he could face competition from other GOP lawmakers, including Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who is also a former GOP whip.
Thune, of South Dakota, announced Saturday he would run again, as did fellow GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. The two long-awaited decisions coincided with increasing Republican optimism that the party will regain the majority in the Senate, which is now split evenly.
McConnell would then be poised to become majority leader, a position he held for six years beginning in 2015.
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Both Thune and McConnell have shrugged off attacks from former President Donald Trump over their refusal to back Trump’s claim that the GOP election was rigged in Biden’s favor.
