The race to become the next Republican Senate leader is heating up as Republican senators are divided over how to counter Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (DN.Y.) offensive on women’s reproductive rights, a top issue in the 2024 election.
For Republican senators running to succeed Republican House Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), the debate over strategy in the chamber has become an opportunity to demonstrate their leadership and strategic skills in the Republican conference committee.
Senate Republicans face a hard decision next week when Schumer forces them to vote on a bill protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) It was written in a way that few, if any, GOP lawmakers could support without significant changes.
Even though Schumer knows Republicans oppose it, he is bringing the bill to a vote so Democrats can portray Republicans as extreme on women’s health issues and draw attention to the consequences of the Supreme Court striking down the nation’s right to abortion in 2022.
He used the same tactic earlier this week when he forced a vote on the further development of the law on the right to contraception. This bill is sponsored by Senators Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Republicans said it is full of poison pill provisions.
The proposal failed by 39 votes to 51. Only two Republicans – Senators Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) – voted together with the Democrats to continue the bill.
John Thune (SD), the Republican Whip in the Senate who is considered the favorite for the next party chairmanship, has argued to colleagues that Republicans should prevent the Democrats’ bills from even being debated.
He says a vote to open debates on these bills still does not guarantee Senate Republicans a chance to change these laws. He argues that doing so would only drag out the process and allow Democrats to do maximum political damage, according to Republican senators.
“These are sham votes. We’ve seen sham votes before, and historically it’s been standard practice to vote against sham votes and call them what they are,” said a Senate Republican aide familiar with the internal debate. “Call them what they are; point out that these are political votes, not intended to become law.”
Thune is expected to argue again next week that Senate Republicans should block a request for debate on Democrats’ IVF legislation.
Senator Rick Scott (Republican of Florida), who is also running for McConnell’s post, however, criticized the Republican leadership in the Senate for not having developed a plan that would give Republican senators the opportunity to open a debate in the plenary by vote and to develop a clearly defined strategy for a counter message.
“We know [Schumer] is going to get those show votes. We know he’s going to use birth control, we know he’s going to use IVF. What I think is we’re all on the same page about what our message is,” Scott said in an interview with The Hill on Thursday.
“It’s important not just to say they’re wrong – we should say what we’re for. There are a number of ways you can do that: you can pass bills, you can pass amendments, you can pass resolutions, you can make statements, you can do all of those things,” he said. “We should take this issue and approach it in a unified way, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Scott has introduced a resolution expressing support for Americans who start families through IVF.
It promotes clinical research to improve outcomes for parents seeking to overcome infertility and supports government legislative and regulatory efforts to establish safety and ethical standards for medical facilities providing IVF treatments.
Schumer on Wednesday denied the claim that the vote on the contraception law was an empty political stunt.
“This is not a show election, this is an election about who you are. And the American people are watching,” he said.
Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), a third candidate in the race to replace McConnell, is urging his colleagues to stick together and vote as a group, no matter which way they go. His comments were interpreted by some Republican senators as taking sides with his colleagues who want to debate women’s reproductive rights and try to change the Democrats’ bills.
At a Republican senators’ luncheon on Tuesday, Collins, a well-known moderate Republican, urged his colleagues to vote to open debate on the Right to Contraception Act, arguing that doing so would give Republicans a chance to introduce their own amendments and portray the Democrats’ bill as extreme, according to senators familiar with the meeting.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a staunch conservative, joined Collins at the meeting and supported the idea of opening the debate by vote, giving Republicans the opportunity to introduce amendments and bring them to a vote in the House.
“We’re completely unprepared on this contraception bill. We discussed this over lunch,” Johnson told The Hill. “Susan Collins said, ‘Why don’t we look at this bill and then just point out all the flaws?’ I said that makes sense to me, but it has to be a coordinated effort.”
“We need leadership here,” he said. “Let’s tackle the bill, let’s put forward amendments that highlight these abuses, and if those amendments fail or don’t even get to a vote, then we’ll take the bill back.”
Johnson pointed to problems he saw in the Democrats’ bill, such as an overly broad definition of contraception and, as he called it, “attacks on religious freedom.”
He said Republicans had no chance for a substantive debate in the plenary because the Republican leadership in the Senate had not developed a plan for a counterattack.
“That would have been my approach, but that requires strong leadership. And our leadership is completely silent on that,” he said, pointing to the fact that McConnell said little about how to proceed and left the strategy to Thune.
Johnson said he was not cheerful with Thune’s advice to vote against debate on the bill in the first place because it would give Democrats the opportunity to claim that Republicans do not support protecting contraceptive rights.
“It will give the Democrats a victory here,” he said of Thune’s strategy.
Johnson predicted that media coverage of the Senate vote would focus primarily on Republican opposition to the contraception bill, and that most Americans would miss the nuances of the political debate.
Cornyn did not advocate a specific course of action at the same luncheon, but said that introducing the bill would only be possible if the entire GOP conference came together and voted to open debate, according to a source familiar with the discussion.
Some Republicans privately complained about Cornyn’s approach to the issue.
A Republican senator who wished to remain anonymous said Cornyn’s willingness to vote to open a debate on contraceptive rights showed that he had lost touch with anti-abortion groups.
“It shows how little contact John Cornyn has with conservatives and pro-life [voters]”Cornyn is making a strong case for voting for this bill,” the Republican senator said. “It would require that sterilization drugs be available to minors. It would require mifepristone in every state. That’s just crazy.”
“He said, ‘We should look at this bill.’ Then Thune stood up and said, ‘We’re not going to get any votes for amendments. Do we want to spend weeks talking about contraception?'” the senator said.
“Cornyn clearly needs the conservative vote to be elected party chairman. … I don’t know how he’s going to do that,” the source said, describing conservatives in the room as having “wide eyes” after Cornyn spoke.
A source familiar with the discussion rejected that account of the meeting, saying Cornyn did not debate strategy with Thune. The source said the Texas senator simply raised the importance of unity, which the conference needed to consider.
So far, Thune is ahead in the debate over the strategy in the plenary session, as the majority of the Republican Senate conference voted with him on Wednesday to block the motion to continue the contraception legislation.
A second Senate Republican, who wished to remain anonymous, said the differing views presented by Thune and Cornyn at the Senate Republican Strategy Conference “seemed to me” like they were vying for the top leadership position.
The senator said Cornyn “said we might have a chance to really transform something here, so it reflects our opinion as well.”
“I just looked at the votes and the only person who voted for it so far was Susan [Collins],” the source said as voting ended.
The senator said Thune has an advantage in the race as the current whip.
“It’s like being an incumbent,” the source added.
