Cotton to run for Senate GOP conference chair

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a highly respected conservative senator who is closely allied with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), announced Tuesday that he will run to become Senate Republican Conference chair, the No. 3-ranking spot in the Senate GOP leadership.

Cotton told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt of his plans to run for conference chair on the same day that Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who currently holds the post, announced he will run to become the next Senate GOP whip.

Cotton is making a bold move. He doesn’t hold an elected Senate GOP leadership spot, and Senate Republican Policy Committee Chair Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is in next in line to chair the GOP conference. She currently holds the No. 4-ranking leadership slot.

If Cotton is elected GOP conference chair, he would also leapfrog Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the Senate GOP conference vice chair.

Traditionally, Senate Republicans have moved up the leadership ladder one rung at a time, but decorum is being put on the shelf at the moment amid one of the biggest scrambles for power within Senate Republican ranks in decades.

The whip’s job will open up at the end of the year, because Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) is running to succeed McConnell as GOP leader. His main competition is Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a prodigious fundraiser who held the whip’s job from 2013-19, including stints in the majority and minority.

Cotton’s biggest asset in the race is that Senate GOP colleagues respect his credentials as a law-and-order conservative focused on national security. He also has a close relationship with McConnell, which could swing votes his way.

Cotton gave a speech nominating McConnell for another term as leader after the 2022 midterm election. It gave the veteran Kentucky senator a boost before he handily defeated Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R) in the leadership race.

Senators say Cotton has often spoken up in support of McConnell at key moments during Senate GOP conference meetings when McConnell needed support on his right flank.