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Following last week’s general election, there’s another important vote this Wednesday in Washington that will have a significant impact on what President-elect Donald Trump can accomplish during his four years in office: Senate Republicans will vote secret to choose. a new leader.

Trump will also be in Washington, meeting with House Republicans in the morning and then traveling to the White House to meet with President Joe Biden.

In January, Republicans will control the Senate. While Trump has not endorsed a candidate in the Senate leadership race, he has asked senators to cede some power to him and commit to allowing him to appoint Cabinet Secretaries in recess appointments – a way for presidents to essentially bypass Congress, which is a break from recent practice.

Trump’s most vocal supporters are rallying behind Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a controversial figure who is still seen as the long-shot option. The most established options are Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. The rare leadership battle is unique for senators because it’s being played out not just behind closed doors in the Capitol, but in public on the conservative media.

Ultimately, the question for Republican lawmakers is whether they want to elect a leader who has years of experience in the arcane practices of the Senate or a leader who was early to tap into the MAGA movement.

Senator Mitch McConnell, 82 years old, is the longest-serving Senate party leader in United States history, being the top Republican in the House since the end of the George W. Bush administration.

History may remember him most for creating a conservative majority on the US Supreme Court, refusing to allow the nomination of then-President Barack Obama get a late vote in 2016 and then quickly push through a nominee, Trump’s third, a week before Trump loses the 2020 election.

McConnell will remain in the chamber until the end of his term in 2026, but he has paved the way for a new generation of leaders to take on Trump. McConnell acknowledged that his brand of Republicanism seems out of place in the populist version of Trump’s party.

Trump and McConnell clashed frequently, especially after the Capitol storming on January 6, 2021. McConnell ultimately did not vote to convict Trump during an impeachment trial, but said Trump was “disgraceful” . Trump continued to criticize McConnell and used racist language to describe McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who served as Transportation Secretary in Trump’s first cabinet.

The duality of McConnell is that he criticized Trump so much – he said a recent biographer Trump was a “sleazeball” and that the MAGA movement is wrong — and also capitalized on Trump’s rise, helped protect him as president in his first term, and ultimately supported his bid for the White House in this year. “We’re all on the same team now,” he said.

McConnell will also be remembered for how the Senate changed during his tenure, when he used the obstruction exploded and was engaged to block the opposing side. Many Democrats supported the destruction of the nuclear filibuster during the Biden administration, given the thin Senate majority. In January, they will rely on her to block Trump’s agenda.

After Trump’s victory last week, McConnell said he was confident the filibuster would be in safe hands with a Republican majority.

Senate Republicans could move in wildly different directions depending on who replaces McConnell.

Thune is McConnell’s No. 2, the Republican whip, and Cornyn previously held that role. Both were first elected to the Senate during the Bush administration and spent decades as senators. Both have at times been critical of Trump, who once called on South Dakota Republicans to mount a primary challenge against Thune.

Having experienced stints in the majority and the minority, both Thune and Cornyn may be unwilling to drastically change the status quo in the Senate.

Scott, on the other hand, wants a drastic change.

“We need to change the way the Senate is run to complete Trump’s agenda,” he said on Fox News.

Although Republican senators ultimately vote in secret on who will choose their leader, Scott has tried to mobilize Trump supporters to make the leadership race part of the Trump movement.

“Right now, it’s really just Washington the establishment versus the Republicans who want to elect Trump,” Scott told right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer on her podcast.

Thune appeared to reject the establishment vs. insurgents in a Fox News op-ed, arguing that Republicans should put aside differences to carry out Trump’s agenda in the face of what is sure to be unified Democratic opposition.

“If we don’t successfully execute our mandate, we risk losing the coalition that put Republicans in office up and down the ballot,” Thune wrote.

Cornyn takes a very different approach.

“I’m not going to do that in the press,” he told CNN’s Lauren Fox.

But the candidates have been laying the groundwork for months. CNN’s Capitol Hill team noted last week that Thune and Cornyn worked hard during the campaign season to help their GOP colleagues. Cornyn appeared with Trump during Trump’s trips to Texas, and Thune met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

Scott just got it 10 votes when he ran against McConnell in 2022, even though he had Trump’s support then. Thune and Cornyn, on the other hand, have been in line for years.