Here Are the Republicans Who Voted Against McConnell's Leadership Bid

On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was overwhelmingly reelected to lead the Republican conference for another two years.

The 37-10 vote—which was conducted behind closed doors—comes after an underwhelming midterm election cycle for Republican Senate candidates that opened up McConnell to a challenge from Florida Senator Rick Scott. The head of the National Republican Senate Committee is a longtime rival of McConnell's and has sought to make inroads into GOP leadership for years.

McConnell has also drawn the ire of former President Donald Trump, who has attempted to divert blame for this fall's elections toward the Senate minority leader after a summer in which McConnell lamented the quality of candidates in key races around the country.

The vote came prior to final results in Alaska and Georgia, where Republican Senate candidates have yet to learn whether they will be seated in the 118th Congress. According to reporters on the ground, just 16 Republicans requested to delay the vote to give Scott additional time to make his case for leading the party, with the rest voting to hold the ballot immediately after the election, as tradition dictates.

While a full list of who voted to unseat McConnell has not been made public, several senators had already telegraphed which way they planned to vote ahead of Wednesday's decision, while others weighed in online after the ballot was taken. In all, just one Republican—outgoing Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse—was absent from the vote, while one member voted "present," not taking a position either way.

Here's who we found.

Josh Hawley

The Missouri Republican and one of the Senate's most conservative members has long been critical of McConnell's leadership. After Wednesday's vote, Hawley was also the figure whom reporters flocked to, and he was the first to deliver his assessment of why McConnell was reelected.

"Why do I think he won?" Hawley told reporters after the vote. "Because the conference didn't want to change course."

"If you want to be a majority party, clearly what we are doing isn't working," he added. "It hasn't been working for a long time. And I think you look at independent voters, we gave them nothing, no alternative. That was the decision by leadership. They didn't want to have an agenda."

Ted Cruz

While he did not offer an explicit endorsement for Scott, Texas Senator Ted Cruz said on his podcast after Election Day that he would be supportive of a change of leadership in the Republican conference after last week's underwhelming midterm performance. He was reportedly among those who moved to delay the vote until after the Georgia elections.

"Just like with a football coach, where you would fire a football coach if the team loses when they should've won—we should've won," Cruz said on his podcast Monday.

"I'm so pissed off, I cannot even see straight."

Lindsey Graham

One of the Senate's more unpredictable members, Graham did not telegraph anything prior to Wednesday's vote. Ultimately, when the ballots were counted, Graham was among the small group of Republicans ready to move past McConnell.

"I supported and voted for a delay in the leadership election," Graham tweeted after the vote. "I believe the process was rushed and a delayed vote would have done the conference enormous good in finding unanimity. At the end of the day, I voted for change."

"We need time to better understand the outcome of the midterm elections and what the voters were trying to tell us," he added. "I also believe it is imperative we change the way we govern the conference."

Mike Braun

Indiana Republican Mike Braun was an early vote in Scott's corner. Braun told Fox Business on Tuesday he believed leadership had too much power and that the party lacked a clear and robust vision to sell voters this cycle. He said this was particularly true on issues like health care reform that were outlined in Scott's divisive alternative GOP agenda released earlier this year.

"I'm gonna back Rick," Braun said. "He and I came in together. We are outsiders that have actually run something... I think clearly he has a track record that I think resonates more broadly through the Republican Party. Unless we want to always have a Hail Mary attempt at winning a presidential election through these swing states... we've got to offer something different."

Ron Johnson

After the National Republican Senatorial Committee—which is led by Scott—injected millions of dollars to help him narrowly defeat to Democrat Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin, Ron Johnson said Tuesday he would be backing the Florida senator as leader.

"I'll be nominating Rick Scott," he told Newsmax. "I think we need a different governing model for our conference, a more collaborative one, one that is more focused on fiscal sanity and bringing greater function to the Senate."

Rand Paul and Marco Rubio (Maybe)

Kentucky Republican Rand Paul told conservative journalist Megyn Kelly this week he supported delaying the vote, saying it might not be fair to have a vote before the result of elections in Georgia and Alaska had been decided.

However, he did not comment on whether he would be backing either man entering this week's vote, nor did Kelly push him for an answer.

Newsweek has followed up with Paul's office for comment.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio also announced he would support delaying the vote, though he did not say whether he would be supporting Scott or McConnell for leadership.

However, it was strongly implied.

"A vote won't solve our internal differences, it will make them worse," he tweeted. "We aren't going to have genuine unity until we make big changes to both our campaign & legislative efforts. That will NEVER happen if we vote today."