Which is interesting! Because Oz is far from alone in his unwillingness among Republican Senate aspirants to express fealty for McConnell if the GOP winds up winning control of the Senate in the midterm elections.
All of which raises an important question: If Republicans do win the Senate majority, will McConnell have the votes to be elected to lead them?
Which is, yes, a bit of putting the cart in front of the horse. At the moment, the fight for Senate control is widely regarded as a toss-up, with Democrats seen as having the edge in money and candidate quality. And if the likes of Oz, Masters and Vance don’t make it to the Senate, then it doesn’t much matter whether they would have voted for McConnell as leader or not.
But if these candidates do wind up winning, then they will be forced to confront their past statements in regards to McConnell.
And, of course, there’s Donald Trump. The former President has made no secret of his dislike of McConnell and has openly campaigned for some other Republican to take him on as leader. But so far, there have been no takers.
“Unfortunately, many of the very people responsible for losing the Senate last cycle are now trying to stop us from winning the majority this time by trash-talking our Republican candidates,” wrote Scott. “It’s an amazing act of cowardice, and ultimately, it’s treasonous to the conservative cause.”
My strong sense is that for all of the talk about their differences with McConnell, the likes of Oz, Masters and Vance would find a way to vote for him as majority leader if they were confronted with the opportunity in early 2023. Why? For two main reasons:
2) It’s not clear they would have any other options. Scott seems far more focused on running for president than he does on running for leader of the Senate Republicans. And the other Senate Republicans who have a constituency in the conference — like, say, John Thune of South Dakota — are not going to challenge McConnell.
So, in the end, this is all likely just political posturing. But McConnell, ever the deliberate and careful political tactician, is likely not taking any chances.