News/Commentary

Elon Musk makes big announcement about next GOP Senate leadership seat

November 11, 2024 | | Print Article

The behind-the-scenes battle for Senate Leader brought a very public endorsement as Elon Musk revealed his pick to his more than 200 million followers.

As Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell’s record Republican leader run is drawing near to its end, Wednesday’s pre-planned secret ballot to determine his successor has become a key focus on Capitol Hill. While President-elect Donald Trump had thus far refrained from playing favorites, Musk, one of his most influential backers, readily voiced his pick in Florida Sen. Rick Scott.

After the former chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) embraced the president-elect’s call to agree to recess appointments within minutes of a post, the tech entrepreneur followed with his endorsement as he shared Scott’s post with the caption, “Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader!”

Throughout the weekend, the world’s richest man conducted a poll pitting Scott against known contenders Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota, as well as offering respondents the choice of “Other.”

With more than a million participants, the former Florida governor was far and away the victor with 65.5% of the vote while “Other” came in second with 22.6%. Taking third and fourth respectively were Thune at 6.6% and Cornyn at 5.2%.

Prior to voicing his own support for Scott on Sunday, Musk included laughing emojis when he responded to an endorsement of the South Dakota lawmaker as he wrote, “(Republican) Senator Thune is the top choice of Democrats…”

Equally pivotal in the get-out-the-vote effort that was outsourced for the 2024 presidential election, Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk reasoned that Scott was the preferred pick among the president-elect’s supporters as he wrote on X Saturday, “The people who just gave Donald Trump a sweeping mandate do not want Thune or Cornyn to lead the US Senate. They want Rick Scott. It’s very clear.”

Likewise, as part of a longer post decrying the secret ballot in what he considered an engineered “coup” opposing Trump’s agenda, commentator Tucker Carlson argued, “Two of the three candidates hate Trump and what he ran on. One of them, John Cornyn, is an angry liberal whose politics are indistinguishable from Liz Cheney’s. The election is Wednesday, it’s by secret ballot, and it will determine whether or not the new administration succeeds.”

“Rick Scott,” contended Carlson, “is the only candidate who agrees with Donald Trump. Call your senator and demand a public endorsement of Rick Scott. Don’t let McConnell get away with it again.”

While prudent for Trump to remain silent on the vote, Musk agreed with Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson that the president-elect could apply pressure in a different way by conducting his own social media poll to reinforce the mandate delivered by Tuesday’s election.

The senator encouraged “@realDonaldTrump, post a poll for your supporters to vote for who they want Republican Senators to elect as Majority Leader and then lobby for their choice to help you achieve your agenda of bold change.”

“I believe that person is Rick Scott,” he added as Musk replied, “Yes.”

As supporters came out in favor of Scott alongside senators that included Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Rand Paul of Kentucky, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley endorsed Cornyn while Steve Daines of Montana, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and Mike Rounds of South Dakota backed Thune.

Kevin Haggerty
Latest posts by Kevin Haggerty (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles