Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., on Wednesday won a vote among Republican senators to take over as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, filling one of the two open slots on the GOP leadership team.
Several GOP senators leaving the vote confirmed Young’s new role.
Young takes over for Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and is tasked with defending a tough map for Republicans in the 2020 campaign cycle. Senate Republicans are slated to defend 20 seats, and many of their incumbents are standing for re-election for the first time.
“The guy’s great. He worked really hard to get elected,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., one of the first-term senators facing new election. “He’s just a go-getter.”
Young was not facing any opposition and was backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Many of the GOP-held seats up in 2020 will be contested on Republican turf as only two seats sit in states where former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton defeated President Trump in 2016.
They are held by Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, whom Democrats have made a top priority after her vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court last month.
