On February 28, Mitch McConnell announced he would be stepping down from Republican Senate leadership this fall, marking an end to his long, divisive, party-defining tenure. While the Kentucky senator plans to serve out his term through 2026, the jockeying for his role as leader has begun in earnest. Several GOP senators with past and current ties to leadership have been floated as potential successors — including multiple lawmakers named John.
Texas’s John Cornyn and South Dakota’s John Thune, the two front-runners, have made their bids official. Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, another potential candidate, announced on Tuesday that he had taken himself out of the running and will instead pursue a bid to be the party’s whip, the Senate’s second-in-command. But other contenders are emerging too. Here’s what to know about the top candidates to succeed McConnell and the likelihood that they will run.
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John Cornyn of Texas
Cornyn, 72, is Texas’s senior senator, having represented the state since 2002. He previously served alongside McConnell as the Republican whip from 2012 to 2019 and chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the party’s campaign arm. Before his time in Congress, he was both a district- and supreme-court judge in Texas and the state’s attorney general.
The senator is largely seen as a consistent conservative, but he continues to face party criticism at home and nationally over his support for bipartisan gun-control legislation after the deadly mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
In 2023, Cornyn briefly caused a stir when he suggested Donald Trump might not be the party’s best presidential candidate after having previously endorsed him in 2016. “We need to come up with an alternative,” Cornyn said, per the Dallas Morning News. “I think President Trump’s time has passed him by and what’s the most important thing to me is we have a candidate who can actually win.” The senator went on to endorse Trump after his win in the New Hampshire primary, writing on social media, “I have seen enough. To beat Biden, Republicans need to unite around a single candidate, and it’s clear that President Trump is Republican voters’ choice.”
One day after McConnell’s announcement, Cornyn officially announced his leadership bid, touting his experience and his collaboration with the former president, particularly naming his work as whip in getting Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh confirmed. “Throughout my time I’ve built a track record of listening to colleagues and seeking consensus, while leading the fight to stop bad policies that are harmful to our nation and the conservative cause,” he wrote in a statement to his fellow Republicans. Though it is still early, Cornyn has yet to receive an endorsement for his campaign.
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John Thune of South Dakota
Thune, 63, is No. 2 in the Senate Republican leadership since succeeding Cornyn as whip in 2019. He was first elected to the Senate in 2005 after several terms in the House of Representatives and is South Dakota’s senior senator. He’s also previously served as Republican Conference chair.
Though Cornyn is no favorite of Trump, Thune may be in an even more precarious position with the Republican Party’s de facto presidential nominee. Thune criticized Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, saying that any such action “would go down like a shot dog” in the Senate. Trump later lashed out at Thune, calling him a “RINO” and “Mitch’s boy” on social media and appearing to support primarying him in 2022. Trump called for South Dakota governor Kristi Noem to challenge Thune for his seat, though she declined to do so.
Thune at first backed South Carolina senator Tim Scott for president but endorsed Trump in early February after speaking to him following the South Carolina primary.
In the immediate aftermath of the McConnell news, Thune began to have conversations with his Republican colleagues about a potential bid. When asked during an interview with South Dakota’s KELO-TV whether he would like to be the party’s leader in the Senate, he made it official.
“Well, I hope to be, and I’m going to do everything I can to convince my colleagues,” Thune said. “They’re the voters. They’re the ones who ultimately make the decision. But that as we look at a new generation of consistent, principled, conservative leadership in the United States Senate that empowers our Senate Republicans, that puts a check and balance against the Schumer — what has been the, a very liberal Schumer-Biden agenda — I’m prepared to lead that effort.”
Thune is seen by some as the front-runner to succeed McConnell due to his current position as the outgoing leader’s deputy. He has also secured the endorsement of two of his fellow senators: Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and Mike Rounds of South Dakota.
During an interview with CNN, Mullin said he’s not sure if Trump will block Thune owing to his past criticism but suggested the former president not weigh in on this race, calling it a “lose-lose situation.”
“He needs to work with whatever leader is there. And let me tell you, whatever leader is there understands that they’re going to have to work with President Trump, too,” he said. “So it’s really not in his best interest to lean into the race at this point. However, if he chooses to do it, it will make a difference.”
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Rick Scott of Florida
Outside of current or former Republican leadership, Scott’s name has emerged as a possible candidate to succeed McConnell. Scott, 71, has served as Florida’s junior senator since 2019, after two terms in the Florida governor’s mansion.
He is not new to the leadership process. The former NRSC chairman previously challenged McConnell for his job in 2022 following the midterms, the first such attempt against him. Scott lost in a vote of 37 to 10 with one member abstaining. The Florida senator was later removed from the Senate Commerce Committee, a move Scott saw as payback from McConnell for challenging him.
For members who have grown tired of McConnell’s style of leadership, Scott could represent a kind of change. Unlike Scott, both Thune and Cornyn served under McConnell for years. Scott has made no official announcements about running for McConnell’s job again but indicated that he is interested. “I’m seriously considering it. As you know, I ran against McConnell about 14 months ago,” he said on The Charlie Kirk Show.
As speculation continues, Scott recently posted a photo with Trump on social media. “Great to see President Trump tonight! We’re going to continue working together to win big in 2024 and fix Washington,” he wrote.
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Steve Daines of Montana
Politico reports that Trump has indeed weighed in on the race to find McConnell’s successor, reaching out to Daines to encourage him to throw his hat into the ring. Daines, 61, has represented Montana in the Senate since 2015 after serving one term in the House of Representatives. In January, Daines was named chairman of the NRSC.
Trump’s influence over the Republican Party has only grown, evident in House Republicans’ recent tanking of a bipartisan immigration bill their Senate counterparts had actively helped to build after Trump criticized it. If the former president were to weigh in on the race in a significant way and in Daines’s favor, it could give his bid a sizable boost. Axios reports that Trump was urging Daines to consider running for leader even prior to McConnell’s announcement.
Daines did not rule out a potential run in an interview with Politico but said his current focus is on getting more Republicans elected in this election cycle. “I told [Trump] the most important thing I can do this moment is to make sure we have a Senate majority in November,” he said.
