Capito eyes Senate GOP leadership bid

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) is eyeing a bid to become the No. 5 Senate Republican starting in 2023. 

Capito told The Hill that she is mulling whether to run for the position, which would make her vice chair of the Senate Republican Conference. 

“I’ve been thinking about it. I’ll just leave it at that,” Capito said, asked if she was interested in the position. 

Capito is an ally of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and serves as an adviser, which allows her to take part in Monday night leadership meetings. 

But going for the No. 5 spot would require her to be elected by the Senate Republican Conference when it holds leadership elections for the 118th Congress later this year. It would also give her a spot at weekly leadership press conferences, where each member of the leadership team highlights their current priorities. 

A GOP senator told The Hill that Capito had privately raised that she was thinking about jumping into the race for the leadership spot, adding that they “told her she should think about it” and that they viewed Capito as someone the caucus “would be interested in if she was willing to do that.”  

Capito indicated to Politico last year that she wasn’t interested in making the jump to elected caucus leadership. But Capito’s interest, which hasn’t been previously reported, comes as Republicans are expected to have a shuffle in their leadership ranks. 

Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), who currently holds the No. 4 position as the Republican Policy Committee chair, is retiring at the end of the current Congress, creating a vacancy.  

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who currently holds the No. 5 spot, confirmed to The Hill that she is looking to move up the leadership ladder to Blunt’s role, creating a vacancy in the conference vice chair spot.  

Ernst cautioned that it was unclear who would ultimately run for her current position but that “some people have expressed interest.”  

Capito sidestepped saying if she had touched base with Ernst but said the two talked on “a lot of different things.”  

Ernst was elected in 2018 to the No. 5 spot in an open race. She ran against Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), who ultimately lost her leadership bid but like Capito currently serves as an adviser to McConnell. Ernst became the first woman to be elected to Senate GOP leadership since 2010 and is currently the only female member of elected leadership.  

In addition to Blunt’s retirement, Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.) is expected to step down as National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) chairman after this cycle. Scott was elected to head the Senate GOP campaign arm for the 2022 midterm cycle, meaning his term is up after the current Congress.   

Though it’s rare, some GOP senators, including McConnell and Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), have served back-to-back cycles atop the Senate GOP campaign arm. 

But neither McConnell nor Cornyn is up for reelection during their stints. Scott appeared skeptical that it would “make sense” for him to be NRSC chairman during the 2024 cycle, when he’ll be busy running his own reelection campaign.  

Scott, who was first elected to the Senate in 2018, made headlines recently for releasing his own GOP agenda despite McConnell indicating that Senate Republicans wouldn’t be releasing one heading into the November elections, which they want to make a referendum on Democratic control of government. Scott specified that the plan represented his own thinking, not the thinking of the NRSC or the party more broadly.  

Scott has said he won’t challenge McConnell to be GOP leader in 2023 but said he hadn’t yet considered if he wanted to stay in GOP leadership more broadly.  

Aside from elected Senate GOP leadership, McConnell also has a group of advisers that attends Monday night leadership meetings. Cornyn, who was term-limited out of serving as Senate GOP whip, and Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.), who previously served as Senate GOP campaign chairman, currently serve in the roles. 

“I’m not even thinking about that. I’m thinking about making sure we get a majority this year,” Scott said, asked if he wanted to stay in leadership.