Senate Republicans kept John Thune as their leader on Tuesday, brushing aside a push by seven GOP senators to delay the vote a day after Thune went to the floor and told incoming Democrats that "Republicans are ready to work with you."
Thune will lead from the minority after Democrats flipped seven Republican-held seats on Nov. 3 (Maine, Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, South Carolina and Kansas) and will hold at least 54 when the new Congress convenes Jan. 3, according to CBS News. Two more seats are still being counted. Democrat Scott Colom led Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi by about 2,500 votes as of Nov. 6, with certification due Nov. 13, and the Alaska result may not be known for weeks.
In his first floor remarks since the election, on Monday, Thune conceded that "Tuesday night was a tough election night. It was certainly not the outcome that we had hoped for. But it was the outcome the American people chose." "Inflation is still too high, and just going to the grocery store can take a huge chunk out of a family's budget," he said, calling the result "a clear message that this coming Congress needs to double down on the work that we've been doing on affordability."
"I want to say to my Democrat colleagues - new and old - that Republicans are ready to work with y
