Instead, McConnell flew off to his ninth straight election to lead the Senate Republican Conference in a landslide, with 37 votes in his corner to just 10 for Trump’s stand-in, Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.).
Scott began his tenure chairing the National Republican Senatorial Committee early last year by making up an award to present to the ex-president at his Palm Beach resort, continued into this year by not intervening in GOP primaries to block Trump-like candidates and ended with Democrats retaining the majority by defeating those mini-Trump candidates.
Across the Capitol, the Trump factor played out most clearly in the House GOP battle to become majority whip, the third-ranking post in the majority.
