Republicans hoping to use their final weeks in power to blunt this week’s Democratic wave are running into resistance from their own side, according to new reporting.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), 93, won’t resign early to let outgoing Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds appoint his successor before Democratic Gov.-elect Rob Sand takes office, a spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
“Sen. Grassley is not resigning,” the spokesperson said. “He remains committed to delivering for the people of Iowa, who overwhelmingly elected him to a six-year term in 2022.”
Grassley raised that scenario himself in September. “I don’t plan on dying in office, but if I did, I don’t want a Democrat governor choosing my successor,” he told a GOP dinner.
Sand has said he would consider appointing an independent if the seat opens up. On Tuesday, Democrats also won three of Iowa’s four House seats and the open seat of retiring Sen. Joni Ernst.
Conservatives hoping for a Supreme Court vacancy are out of luck, too. Justice Samuel Alito, 76, has told people close to him that he doesn’t intend to retire immediately, according to The New York Times, which cited two sources. That likely means President Donald Trump won’t get another justice confirmed before Democrats take over the Senate in January.
A lame-duck confirmation would have been a heavy lift anyway. Defeated Republican senators, including Susan Collins, John Cornyn and Bill Cassidy, may have had little appetite to help Trump push a nominee through. Conservative legal analyst Ed Whelan warned that Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas, 78, may not be able to retire until 2033 if they want a like-minded successor.
In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp rejected calls for a special session to redraw congressional maps or limit the powers of Gov.-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Bottoms’ win ended 24 years of Republican control of the governor’s mansion.
“The voters of our state have spoken,” Kemp said, although he did leave open the possibility of calling lawmakers back to deal with state finances.
Not every Republican is ready to accept the results. In Texas, where Democrat Gina Hinojosa won the governor’s race, state Rep. Brian Harrison demanded that Gov. Greg Abbott call a special session to rein in the emergency powers she will inherit.
“We still have total power in Texas, and we must act like it,” Harrison wrote on X. He warned that “without action, Governor Hinojosa will inherit the powers of a DICTATOR.”
Texas Senate Republicans were also expected to meet Wednesday to discuss reorganizing the chamber, the Houston Chronicle reported, citing Quorum Report’s Scott Braddock.
Harrison has pushed for limits on emergency powers before, but his 2023 bill on the issue never advanced. Abbott, who has conceded the race, can call lawmakers back for up to 30 days before Hinojosa is sworn in.