Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is among a group of 59 influential conservative power brokers who signed an open letter pressing Republican leaders in the House and Senate to delay their internal conference leadership elections.
“The Republican Party needs leaders who will confidently and skillfully present a persuasive coherent vision of who we are, what we stand for, and what we will do. Many current elections are still undecided. There should be no rushed leadership elections,” the letter says.
“Conservative Members of the House and Senate have called for the leadership elections to be delayed. We strongly urge both Houses of Congress to postpone the formal Leadership elections until after the December 6 runoff in Georgia and all election results are fully decided.”
Ginni Thomas’s conservative activism and claims of fraud in the 2020 election results have prompted calls for Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from cases involving former President Trump or even step down from the bench altogether.
Other notable signatories on the letter are Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation; David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth; Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff; Matt Schlapp, chairman of the Conservative Political Action Coalition; David Bossie, president of Citizens United; and Jim DeMint, a former South Carolina senator and chairman of the Conservative Partnership Institute.
Leadership elections are scheduled to happen on Tuesday in the House and on Wednesday in the Senate, despite the final partisan breakdown of the House remaining unknown with several races not having projected winners. Democrats are projected to keep control of the Senate, but the Georgia runoff will determine whether Republicans keep 49 or 50 seats.
In the upper chamber, GOP Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Ted Cruz (Texas), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) have called to delay leadership elections.
“In light of #GASen runoff, it would be appropriate to delay Senate leadership elections until we know who is in the Senate Republican Conference,” Graham wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
A number of members of the confrontational conservative House Freedom Caucus have also called to delay leadership elections.
“We don’t even know if we have the majority or who’s in the majority,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) told The Hill in an interview last week. “How can [incoming members] be expected to vote for a rules package, how we run this place, or leadership, if they haven’t met these people, they haven’t heard their pitch?”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) faces no challenge to his leadership, despite Trump calling him a “lousy leader” and floating Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) as an alternative.
Trump has endorsed McCarthy for Speaker, but a number of members of the House Freedom Caucus have withheld support for him and have not ruled out putting up a challenger before Tuesday. The caucus is pushing for rules changes that would, on the whole, give more power to individual members rather than leadership.