by Ben Whedon
Senate Republicans on Tuesday suspended the leadership contest after two hours of deliberations as conservative lawmakers pressed Majority Leader John Thune for a plan to advance their conference’s priorities until the end of December, after which Democrats take control of the chamber.
Thune hopes to hold leadership elections this afternoon and the pause does not mean that the chamber will delay the proceedings.
“We haven’t decided whether it’s going to be delayed,” he said, according to The Hill newspaper. We had a conversation and more people wanted to speak.”
At least seven Senate Republicans have asked that votes be delayed, in part, also, to reflect on how their party lost so badly to Democrats during last week’s midterm elections.
Among them is Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson who has vowed to walkout on balloting.
According to Punchbowl News reporter Laura Weiss, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said “it’s important that when we try to figure out the problem and the solution. I don’t think the problem is necessarily the people up here in the leadership. ”
“I don’t think anybody in Texas who voted for the Democrat governor was voting against John Thune. So if you diagnose that as a problem, you’re misdiagnosing the problem,” Paul told Weiss.
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Ben Whedon is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
Photo “Jon Thune” by Jon Thune.
