Senate GOP wrestles with post-McConnell term limits
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One of the few major splits among GOP Senate leadership contenders — how long Mitch McConnell's successor should be able to hold the job — resurfaced this week.
Why it matters: There's growing interest within the GOP in preventing the kind of 18-year reign McConnell (R-Ky.) has enjoyed.
- Support for leader term limits has become an early flashpoint in the race between Republican Sens. John Cornyn (Texas), John Thune (South Dakota) and Rick Scott (Florida).
- For the second time this year, the departing GOP leader is sharply warning his conference against embracing term limits for his successor.
- McConnell raised the issue during a Tuesday lunch, four sources familiar with the matter told Axios, a sign of how serious discussions about a term-limit proposal have become.
Between the lines: Frequent McConnell critics — including Scott and Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Ron Johnson (Wis.) — have led the charge to impose a maximum number of years that a Republican can serve as leader.
- But they're not alone. With Cornyn joining Scott in backing term limits — and others in the conference at least open to the idea — long-time backers are hopeful they can win the support of most of the conference.
- "There's a lot of interest in it," Scott, who launched his leadership campaign with a call for a six-year term limit on leadership, told Axios.
- "I don't know what for sure is going to happen, but there's some people that think there's no question that we're going to have term limits going forward," he added.
What to watch: Thune, currently in the party's No. 2 job as whip, is the only one of the three candidates for GOP leader who hasn't backed the idea of term limits. But he also hasn't ruled them out, saying he's open to discussing it.
- Even those who want to keep things as they are acknowledge there's a real debate.
- Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who is running for the No. 4 leadership slot, said the term limits conversation "is serious, and I think it's a conversation we should have. I just don't happen to agree with it."
Zoom in: McConnell believes imposing term limits on leaders would be a bad idea — hurting their ability to build out hefty fundraising operations and hampering their power in a way that could devolve into House-like chaos.
- McConnell laid out those arguments in detail to senators Tuesday, pointing to biannual leadership elections as regular opportunities for change.
- Multiple sources expressed some surprise at the length of time McConnell spent discussing the topic.
- Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) was the only other senator to speak on the subject during the meeting, backing McConnell.
The intrigue: McConnell also spent a lot of time during Tuesday's lunch touting how his fundraising prowess, demonstrated largely through the Senate Leadership Fund super PAC, directly helped senators win their seats in the room, according to two sources.
- He name-checked conservatives Johnson and Eric Schmitt (Mo.) as well as moderate Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) as senators who have benefited.
- McConnell reminded the group how he used his power to help younger senators get on powerful committees — and pointed to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) even greater say in committee assignments.
- Some sources argued McConnell's flex during the lunch could have amplified the argument of those who want to see power more spread out in the conference.
The bottom line: McConnell's colleagues already are speculating about how he might continue to wield his long-held power, and the effort to argue against term limits is the latest sign of him trying to influence the conference on his way out as leader.
