Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), an adviser to Senate Republican leadership, circulated a letter to his colleagues opposing conservative senators’ efforts to change the Republican conference rules to take power away from GOP leaders.
Senate conservatives, led by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), want to take advantage of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)’s decision to step down as party leader at the end of the year by changing the rules of the Republican conference to take power away from party leaders.
One of their most important reforms would be to limit the next party leader’s term in office to six years, something McConnell has said is a bad idea.
Republican Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota, who is running to replace McConnell, has not yet supported term limits for the next Senate majority leader, but his top rivals for the position, Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida, support the idea.
Tillis, who served as speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives before joining the Senate in 2016, now opposes calls to limit the power of the next leader.
“It is critical that you consider proposals that will strengthen, not weaken, my position as Republican leader,” he wrote in a letter to colleagues.
If Republicans want to get closer to that goal, Tillis, the former management consultant, suggests they look at the rules of the Senate Democratic Conference for some ideas on how to increase party unity.
He noted that after a bipartisan bill to address gun violence passed the Senate in 2022, some Republicans complained that “Democrats are united and they’ll never do that.”
“If the goal is to further strengthen that discipline among us, then undermining leadership would be counterproductive. So as we consider these things, let’s keep in mind the goals and the consequences of change,” he advised.
He noted that the Senate Democratic Conference tends to work more in lockstep with party leaders than the Senate Republican Conference, but “they haven’t done anything about term limits.”
He also noted that none of the four House and Senate caucuses currently have term limits for their party leaders.
He pointed out to his colleagues that the Republican Senatorial Conference had voted on term limits for party leader in 1995 and 2008, rejecting the idea both times.
“Having term limits on the leader could make the political side of things more difficult,” he warned. “I’m in favor of no term limits because the leader is elected every two years and I don’t think incumbency is a big advantage in a leadership election.”
McConnell, who became Senate Republican leader in 2007, has only faced one leadership challenge in his 17-plus years in the top job: after the 2022 midterm elections, when Scott faced McConnell but lost by a 36-10 vote.
Tillis also argued that if Republican senators want term limits for the Senate Republican leader, they should also consider even stricter term limits for committee chairs and ranking members.
In his letter, he noted that senators who have served on multiple committees for decades, such as Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), can continue to serve as chairs or ranking members of various committees once they reach the term limits for those particular committees.
For example, Senator Grassley, 90, served as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee for many years before becoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and is currently the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee.
“If we are to move forward with term limits for leadership, I believe we need to reconsider all term limits for elected leadership positions and committee chairs,” he wrote.
“Some will say that there are already term limits for chairs, but I disagree. It’s a question of which committee you will be chairing once you become chair, not whether you will be chair in the future,” he argued.
He noted that Grassley has served as a committee chairman or ranking member for nearly three decades, “six years longer than Mitch was in leadership.”
Tillis stressed to her Republican colleagues that the Senate Democratic leader has more power than his Republican counterpart in some areas.
For example, Republican leaders have the power to pick half and one of the open committee seats, while Democratic leaders have the power to fill all open committee seats.
“Expanding the power of leaders, [with] “Democratic leaders could empower their leaders to place members on committees that are most likely to advance the majority of the conference’s agenda,” he suggested.
Tillis also reminded his Senate Republican colleagues that, unlike the Senate Republican Conference, the Democratic leader chairs the conference and presides over all meetings and luncheons.
“Everyone except the leader has three minutes to speak,” he said of the Democratic Party. “They could consider adopting a similar model or at least adopting time limits and reorienting the luncheon so that the leaders set the agenda, the delegates are the coordinators, the conference leaders or whatever are the moderators.”
The proposal appears to be aimed specifically at Messrs. Lee and Johnson, who, as chairman of the Senate Administration Committee, presides over a weekly luncheon for Republican senators, and Johnson, who is known for speaking at length at luncheons.
Tillis noted that while Senate Democratic leadership appoints the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the selection is approved by the rest of the Democratic Conference, Senate Republican Conference rules leave it up to individual senators to decide whether to run for chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
“Having party leadership appoint the NRSC chair subject to conference approval could increase the likelihood that the NRSC chair will be aligned with Republican leadership priorities and reduce the risk of clashes in messaging or priorities,” he wrote. The reform was apparently aimed at Scott, who clashed with McConnell over messaging and fundraising strategies when he served as Senate Republican campaign chairman in the 2022 midterm elections.
