Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the head of the Senate GOP's campaign arm, on Tuesday sent a letter to Senate Republicans launching a challenge to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to lead the caucus next term.
"I believe it's time for the Senate Republican Conference to be far more bold and resolute than we have been in the past," wrote Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "We must start saying what we are for, not just what we are against. I do not believe we can simply continue to say the Democrats are radical, which they are. Republican voters expect and deserve to know our plan to promote and advance conservative values. We need to listen to their calls for action and start governing in Washington like we campaign back at home."
Scott and McConnell have long been involved in a battle about the best strategy and vision for the party. The two also held differing views when it came to spending resources in the midterm election, the quality of candidates running and messaging, CNN reported.
But their rivalry, which has mostly existed behind the scenes, publicly erupted after the Republican Party's poor performance in last Tuesday's contests.
Tensions between the two Republicans and their aides started simmering leading up to the elections. McConnell was cut out of NRSC strategy discussions, his aides blamed Scott for releasing a policy plan that suggested changing Social Security and a source close to Scott blamed McConnell for allowing Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to propose a national abortion ban, The Washington Post reported.
After Republicans failed to win back the majority, the pair's ongoing battle grew even more intense with their political operations getting involved and blaming the other for the poor outcome.
"Senator Scott disagrees with the approach that Mitch has taken in this election and for the last couple of years, and he made that clear, and Senator McConnell criticized Senator Scott's management of the NRSC," Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley told reporters, according to CNN.
The two engaged in a tense discussion during a private three-hour Senate GOP meeting, according to several senators. Following the meeting, Scott was disinvited from speaking at the party's weekly leadership press conference, according to Scott spokesman McKinley Lewis.
But that wasn't the only development coming out of the meeting. Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., called for an independent review of how the National Republican Senatorial Committee spent its resources for the midterm election, Politico reported.
Blackburn told Scott that there needed to be an accounting of how money was spent so that senators understood how and why key decisions were made, according to two people familiar with the discussion, Politico reported.
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People aligned with McConnell and Scott have also started to get involved in their feud on social media.
Curt Anderson, a Scott adviser, criticized Senate Leadership Fund, the McConnell-linked super PAC for its lack of commitment to winning the Georgia Senate runoff election.
"Watched Monday Night Football here in Georgia last night, and the evening news. Schumer's superpacs running tons of ads attacking Walker. McConnell's superpac running zero ads attacking Warnock. Have they given up?" he tweeted.
Steve Law, the CEO of McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund, fired back, saying that NRSC was barely making a dent in the race.
"But don't worry little buddy—we're used to covering for you," Law responded.
Law also retweeted a screenshot of an NRSC email, which showed that the committee kept 99% of the funds Herschel Walker was raising.
"Good committees raise enough so that they don't have to steal from their candidates," Law said.
"Now it's total open warfare between McConnell world and Scott world," tweeted MSNBC host Chris Hayes.
"The open hostility between Rick Scott's and McConnell's teams is just off the charts," noted Washington Post reporter Aaron Blake.
Despite their teams publicly feuding, Scott wrote in his letter that "there is no one person responsible for [the Republican] party's performance across the country" and blamed a lack of Republican voter turnout for candidates losing.
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee put out a statement calling attention to the ongoing feud between Scott and McConnell.
"Senate Republicans are getting nasty, petty and viciously personal – everything we could ask for heading into the Georgia runoff," the statement said. "For our part, Senate Democrats are unified and focused on re-electing Rev. Warnock."
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