Ten GOP Senators lodge “protest vote” for Rick Scott, but Mitch McConnell wins easily

by | Nov 16, 2022



  • U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell quickly put an end to the Rick Scott rebellion, rejecting a push for a delay in voting until after the Georgia senate race is settled
  • The minority leadership vote resulted in an easy win for McConnell by a margin of 27 votes
  • The voting was conducted with a secret ballot, so it is impossible to know how senators voted
  • Scott and McConnell have clashed all summer on election strategy

On Wednesday afternoon, Mitch McConnell easily cemented his stranglehold on Republican power in the United States Senate. Even with a secret ballot, only 10 GOP senators lodged protest votes in favor of U.S. Senator Rick Scott.

The one-day campaign by Scott to oust McConnell still represented the toughest competition the senior Republican senator from Kentucky has faced for the top leadership job since he became Senate minority leader in 2007. But Scott’s bid nevertheless well short of the 37 senators who voted in favor of maintaining the status quo. One senator abstained from voting.

McConnell will now resume his role as minority leader, a position he’s held since 2006, regardless of the outcome of the U.S. Senate runoff election in Georgia next month.

Scott announced 11th hour campaign on Tuesday, posting on Twitter that the “status quo is broken and big change is needed.” A proxy war on the social media platform ensued, with supporters of both senators taking shots at each other. But McConnell swiftly tamped out any drama upon hearing news of Scott’s challenge with a laconic response on Tuesday afternoon, saying, “I have the votes.”

It turns out, he was right. But McConnell, at least publicly, appeared magnanimous in the victory.

“First, I don’t own this job. Anybody who wants to run for it can feel free to do so,” McConnell said in a news conference after the election. “So I’m not in any way offended by an opponent or having a few votes in opposition.”

Scott and McConnell clashed on strategy throughout the 2022 cycle, with Scott criticizing McConnell’s investments in certain Senate races, while McConnell blasted Scott’s 12-point Plan to Rescue America by echoing President Joe Biden’s attack that Scott’s plan the called for raising taxes on poor people. An initial version of the plan contained unclear language that Democrats exploited, forcing Scott to clarify the document as the election season heated up.

6 Comments

  1. Daniel Rousseau

    Senator Scott is a big phony. He’s the guy who was CEO of Hospital Corporation of America when it cheated the taxpayers out of millions and millions of dollars in Medicare/Medicaid money, and then he hid behind the 5th Amendment when questioned about it. “I decline to answer” was the answer he gave again and again and again. And now he’s complaining about Democrats wasting money? He’s also the Senator of the State of Florida, with millions of retirees who depend on their Social Security checks, and he has already announced his plans to vote every five years on whether to chop Social Security or continue it. THAT, boys and girls, IS THE REAL RICK SCOTT. A big phony.

    • Missy

      McConnell is worse. They’re all crap, and are only in it for money and power. Mitch is 80, and his wife is very wealthy in her own right.

      He’ll roast in hell for what he has done. I will relish that throughout eternity.

  2. wjtinfwb

    I’m on the fence about a lot of thing Rick Scott but.. at least he tried. Scott put together an Agenda for the Republicans to work from to earn the independent vote. Most of these RINOs led by McConnell wanted nothing to do with an Agenda or vid forbid, a commitment. The Turtle believed Biden and the Democrats would hang themselves with the disaster they’ve created. What the Republicans refuse to acknowledge is that the Independent vote is what you’ve got to win. Independent’s don’t really like Republicans, they prefer Democrats but are pragmatic enough to consider better alternatives. But you have to give them the alternatives. Standing there berating the Democrats without offering your own plans and clearly articulating what you stand for and pledge to do is simply political masturbation. McConnell is a dinosaur from a bygone era before social media and youth involvement. The fact that he’s been the Senate Minority leader for 16 years suggests eats volumes. Time for term limits and for Mitch to retire to Kentucky and pass the torch to a more aggressive brand of conservative leadership.

    • Tarno_inz

      I agree with you but for one point: Independents are more of a mixed bag. Some prefer the D brand and others prefer the R brand. And, sadly, that is what it is for many voters, just a brand. We need to believe in something, not just blindly follow the parties. I hear “let’s not get into the weeds” a lot. But that is where the truth lives. All of the televised media is too shallow. This is no way to run elections in a democratic republic: ignorance encouraged by media.
      I encourage all to really look at what the parties actually hold as core tenets, choose the one that is closest to your beliefs, and join and help to steer that party towards your beliefs. Criticizing from the outside is futile. And never forget: politics ain’t bean bag.

  3. Joe

    The people wanted Mitch gone. He should be gone.

  4. Mike Bonner

    Nothing changes in Washington. They do not in any way represent the idiots who voted for them. I say idiots because I to am one who thought voting could make a difference. Wrong! Those in office now except for a few are as corrupt as those in any Socialist or Communist Country. Mitch and his cronies have stuck it in our butts again.

 

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