X becomes backdrop for Senate leader fight

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The Big Story 

The race for the next Senate majority leader ramped up over the weekend, with prominent figures taking to social media platform X to catapult their endorsements. 

© AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth

A series of prominent GOP and MAGA figures took to X over the weekend to urge the Senate Republican Conference to elect Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) as the chamber’s next majority leader. 

 

The secret-ballot vote for GOP leader will be held Wednesday.

 

Elon Musk, the owner of X, SpaceX and Tesla, was among the voices, posting on X Sunday, “Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader!”

 

The remarks were made in a repost of Scott’s pledge on X to “do whatever it takes” to get President-elect Trump’s nominations through the chamber “as soon as possible” by allow him to make recess appointments, which has not happened in years. 

 

In a pinned post first published on Sunday morning, Musk circulated a poll asking X users to choose between Scott, Republican Whip John Thune (R-S.D.), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) or an “other” option for who they’d like to see as the next Senate GOP leader. 

 

Scott garnered 65.5 percent of the vote on X, while “other” received 22.6 percent and Thune and Cornyn — who are both jockeying for the role — each received single-digit support. The poll received more than 1 million votes and had nearly 37 million views. 

 

Conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson joined the conversation on X, accusing Thune and Cornyn, who have served in the Senate since 2005 and 2002 and are close allies of current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), of secretly hating Trump.

 

“What the hell is going on in the U.S. Senate? Hours after Donald Trump wins the most conclusive mandate in 40 years, Mitch McConnell engineers a coup against his agenda by calling early leadership elections in the Senate. Two of the three candidates hate Trump and what he ran on,” Carlson posted on X.

 

Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who both may be in line for a senior position in the Trump administration, also endorsed Scott on X. 

 

While the use of social media for the broadcast of views and support is nothing new to politicians, especially among Trump’s bandwagon, Musk’s involvement and the use of X is the latest sign of the tech mogul’s increasing shift into the political fray. 

 

Musk, who emerged as one of Trump’s most visible allies in the run-up to the race, could be in line for an official role in the next White House and has reportedly spent recent days with the president-elect at his Mar-a-Lago estate. 

 

Despite the swirling conversations, the biggest star in the MAGA universe, Trump, has yet to make an endorsement in the Senate leadership race.

 

Read more from The Hill’s Alexander Bolton here.

Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter, we’re Julia Shapero and Miranda Nazzaro — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.

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