GOP senators hopeful they’ve quashed additional election challenges

Republican senators are hopeful that they’ve convinced their colleagues to drop their plan to challenge additional Electoral College results from Georgia and Pennsylvania.

The Senate will reconvene on Wednesday evening to finish debating a challenge to Arizona’s Electoral College results, which was interrupted when rioters stormed the Capitol and senators were moved to a secure location.

“There’s gonna be probably 30 or 40 more minutes of debate, and one vote,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) “I just don’t think there’s going to be another objection. I think it’s over at that point.”

Paul said they expect that the Senate will vote on the objection to Arizona’s Electoral College votes but didn’t expect Republican senators to object to the results from Georgia or Pennsylvania as previously planned.

Spokespeople for Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), who were expected to object to Pennsylvania and Georgia, respectively, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Senate is expected to reconvene to continue its debate at 8 p.m., when senators will ultimately vote to reject the challenge to Arizona’s Electoral College results. After that, senators will go back to the House chamber and continue counting the tally.

Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), a member of GOP leadership confirmed that the group of senators who have pledged to object to the Electoral College results will speak as part of the chamber’s debate over Arizona but stopped short of predicting Republicans had successfully convinced others to abandon their plans to object to additional states.

Without the support of a senator, objections from House lawmakers will not result in a debate or a vote.

“We’ll see how the discussion goes with Arizona. I think they all expect to speak during that, and whether that turns out to be satisfactory or not, I don’t know,” Blunt said about additional objections to Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Up to 14 GOP senators were supportive of trying to challenge Biden’s win.

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) indicated that he would be dropping his plan to object.

“I think … that today change things drastically. Yeah, whatever point you made before that should suffice. Get this ugly day behind us,” he said.