Last Tuesday, America sent a resounding message to Washington when they elected Donald Trump and gave Republicans majorities in the Senate and likely the House. D.C. Republicans now have one job: Don’t screw it up.
For Senate Republicans, this means closing the book on the Mitch McConnell era of governance marked by heavily centralized management and open hostility to the Trump agenda and the Republican base. On Nov. 13, they will elect a new leader for the first time in nearly 18 years and have a chance to usher in a new leadership that is accountable to the conference and the priorities of the evolving base of the Republican Party.
As he prepares to depart the post of leader, McConnell continues to make clear where he stands on the Trump agenda. According to a forthcoming biography, he wished for Democrats to defeat Trump (in his words, to “take care of that son of a b-tch for us”) and has said he intends to stay in the Senate to fight members of his own party as a restrained foreign policy takes root within the GOP.
Republicans in the Senate cannot be led by someone who is openly hostile to the agenda of their party’s president and, by extension, the base who elected him — and all of them — on that platform. The Senate is not a rubber stamp for the president, but it must be an open and willing partner in implementing the president’s policy agenda. This requires a GOP leader who not only can intelligently advocate for an America First platform but also empowers each GOP senator to do the same.
The Majority Leader Is Not a Shop Foreman
To that end, how the Republican conference operates must change dramatically. While the House has a hierarchical leadership structure where all the authority over the House floor is vested in the speaker, the Senate is structured so that each senator has nearly equal power to demand votes on both bills and amendments.
However, over the last two decades, the leadership of both parties has centralized power in themselves. To borrow a phrase from former Sen. Jeff Sessions, the modern majority leader now acts as a “shop foreman,” devising strategies and issuing orders to which all other senators are simply expected to acquiesce. Senators who go their own way are subject to McConnell’s threats and intimidation or left high and dry during campaign season.
This “ruling from on high” approach has not been successful. Last year’s disastrous attempt at an immigration bill is a case study. The so-called “bipartisan” immigration bill was negotiated with Democrats in secret by Sens. James Lankford and McConnell. Input was not sought from other Republicans, and when it was offered, was excluded.
The result was one of the worst policy and strategic outcomes in recent memory. A bill intended to secure the border not only would have allowed nearly 2 million more illegal crossings before enforcement kicked in but also would have codified the “catch and release” strategy of releasing illegal aliens into the country once apprehended, allowing the Biden administration to continue to exploit status loopholes and provide work permits to illegal aliens, among other troubling provisions.
Instead of walking away from the negotiating table when the outcome became clear, Lankford and McConnell doubled down, and the bill proceeded to the Senate floor with the imprimatur of Senate Republicans — even though a majority of the conference opposed it on policy grounds.
Even though nearly all Senate Republicans ended up voting against it, the damage was done. Republicans now appeared to be blocking a “border fix,” and Biden and Harris were able to use the talking point during the entire presidential campaign. Laughably, McConnell blamed the blunder on Donald Trump.
A Strong Leader Means a Strong Conference
Thankfully, senators are beginning to focus on rebuilding their conference governance. A series of open letters between Sens. Thom Tillis and Mike Lee has focused on some of the technical changes that could be made. However, the debate has been characterized as a choice between a “strong” GOP leader or a “weak” one.
This is the wrong framing. No one wants a “weak” leader. Rather, what conservatives, in particular, want is an end to the centralized conference management where the leader makes all the decisions either alone or with the input of a handful of senators, and the rest of the conference is shut out of policy, strategy, and tactical decision-making. To that end, three key reforms should be implemented.
First, the position of GOP leader must be term-limited to six years. Every other position in the GOP leadership is term-limited outside the majority leader, who can serve as many terms as he wants. Of the three senators vying to replace McConnell — Rick Scott, John Thune, and John Cornyn — both Scott and Cornyn have come out in support of the change (Thune has said he is “open” to it but has not affirmatively backed it).
McConnell vehemently opposes it, claiming it would hurt the leader’s ability to fundraise. But this is nonsense. The leader’s PAC raises money to sustain a GOP Senate majority, and that is true regardless of who is at the top. The talent bench within the GOP conference is deep, and that talent should be allowed to rise, with new ideas, vision, and energy reinvigorating the conference every six years.
Second, the Senate floor must once again be open to debate and deliberation. The centralization of power in the leader’s office has effectively shut down the Senate floor for rank-and-file senators. They have no influence within the conference to weigh in on how and when bills are considered and are given little chance to amend legislation once it’s on the Senate floor. This is an affront to the Senate’s institutional role and the senators themselves. The new leader must commit to a more open floor process, including conference-wide strategy and decision-making, and a robust regular order amendment process.
Third, the next GOP leader must unify the GOP conference in partnership with the Trump White House. The last four years were marked by a Democrat Senate getting most of what it wanted thanks to 10 Republicans willing to vote with Democrats, giving them the necessary 60 votes for their major priorities. K Street, Wall Street, and the defense base were satisfied, but Republican voters were left in the lurch.
That attitude must change. To be successful, Donald Trump will need the full cooperation of Senate Republicans, particularly in confirming his nominations. This will require a leader engaged in whipping votes, developing innovative floor strategies, and being willing to make the Senate work more than two and a half days a week.
For the first time in 18 years, Senate Republicans will be making a meaningful change in their leadership, and it couldn’t come at a more important time. Republican voters have given their elected leaders a mandate to implement their shared vision for the country. Whoever Senate Republicans select as their leader — and the vision that leader commits to implementing — will be the first sign of whether Senate Republicans have received the message.
Rachel Bovard is the vice president of programs at the Conservative Partnership Institute. She served on Capitol Hill for over a decade, including as legislative director to Sen. Rand Paul and the executive director of the Senate Steering Committee.
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