Lee Zeldin Mulls His Next Act

If there is one thing all factions of the Republican Party agree on, it’s that the party needs new leadership after the serial fiascos of 2018, 2020, and 2022. And these days, when all factions of the Republican Party agree on something, they will inevitably set about it in such a way as to ensure that it doesn’t happen, so that each faction can profitably blame the others. Thus, the entire slate of House and Senate Republican leadership is being returned to office, frustrating those who wanted Mitch McConnell replaced with someone more MAGA, those who wanted Tom Emmer held accountable for the failures of the National Republican Congressional Committee and/or replaced by someone more conservative, and those who thought that Kevin McCarthy was either too subservient to Donald Trump or not conservative enough. The McConnell challenge presented the particularly absurd spectacle of people who were angry at the allocation of Senate campaign resources in 2022 rallying behind . . . Rick Scott, who led the National Republican Senatorial Committee through the 2022 cycle. Stay tuned to how well the new-leadership effort goes in preventing the party from nominating the same man for president for the third cycle in a row.

Defenestrating congressional leadership is complicated by the fact that these are all elected officials. The chair of the Republican National Committee is not, but answers to a party infrastructure that is ultimately chosen by the self-selected sorts of activists who show up at local party committee meetings. Ronna McDaniel, formerly known as Ronna Romney McDaniel, can point to no great success stories but has been broadcasting that she has sufficient support locked down to keep her in office. But now, Lee Zeldin is considering a bid to unseat her. Politico reported on an email in which Zeldin says that he is “very seriously considering” a run: “It is time for our party to retool, transform, win back the Presidency in 2024, expand our number of Republican held seats in Congress, and elect the maximum number of down ballot races across the country. The Republican Party needs to be all in to do everything in its power to save America.”

If there is one thing all factions of the Republican Party agree on, it’s that the party needs new leadership after the serial fiascos of 2018, 2020, and 2022. And these days, when all factions of the Republican Party agree on something, they will inevitably set about it in such a way as to ensure that it doesn’t happen, so that each faction can profitably blame the others. Thus, the entire slate of House and Senate Republican leadership is being returned to office, frustrating those who wanted Mitch McConnell replaced with someone more MAGA, those who wanted Tom Emmer held accountable for the failures of the National Republican Congressional Committee and/or replaced by someone more conservative, and those who thought that Kevin McCarthy was either too subservient to Donald Trump or not conservative enough. The McConnell challenge presented the particularly absurd spectacle of people who were angry at the allocation of Senate campaign resources in 2022 rallying behind . . . Rick Scott, who led the National Republican Senatorial Committee through the 2022 cycle. Stay tuned to how well the new-leadership effort goes in preventing the party from nominating the same man for president for the third cycle in a row.

Defenestrating congressional leadership is complicated by the fact that these are all elected officials. The chair of the Republican National Committee is not, but answers to a party infrastructure that is ultimately chosen by the self-selected sorts of activists who show up at local party committee meetings. Ronna McDaniel, formerly known as Ronna Romney McDaniel, can point to no great success stories but has been broadcasting that she has sufficient support locked down to keep her in office. But now, Lee Zeldin is considering a bid to unseat her. Politico reported on an email in which Zeldin says that he is “very seriously considering” a run: “It is time for our party to retool, transform, win back the Presidency in 2024, expand our number of Republican held seats in Congress, and elect the maximum number of down ballot races across the country. The Republican Party needs to be all in to do everything in its power to save America.”