Dan O’Donnell writes that Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, who announced his retirement after a highly controversial move, must step aside for the good of the party and, in a larger sense, the state.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu’s announcement that he isn’t running for re-election this November really wasn’t much of a surprise. It was an open secret in the Capitol that he had been looking for an out for several years and was just waiting to finalize his post-Senate employment before pulling the rip cord.
But he is still Senate Majority Leader for the next eight months, and in his final day on the Senate floor he unfortunately proved he shouldn’t be. Despite strong opposition from his own caucus, he brought both the online sports betting and NIL bills up for a vote.
They both passed with more support from Democrats than Republicans. Three voted against the NIL bill while nine GOP senators—half of the entire caucus—voted against online sports betting! How can LeMahieu continue to lead when he explicitly defied the wishes of 50 percent of the people he leads? Especially on such an important bill?
With so many Republicans opposed, LeMahieu should have adhered to the Rule of 17 and refused to bring the bill to the floor, but he did. And now he should do the honorable thing and immediately resign as Majority Leader.
The Rule of 17, which requires a minimum of 17 GOP senators to support a bill before leadership schedules a floor vote, isn’t just about stopping bad legislation; it’s a tool to ensure that a bill is popular with a broad base of Republican voters and not just special interests and/or donors.
LeMahieu sided with the latter, and his betrayal of half of his own caucus is disqualifying. The need for him to immediately step down, however, is much deeper than a single bill. With the legislative year largely done and a massive election on the horizon, the Senate Majority Leader must be a tireless fundraiser to preserve the razor-thin majority.
How hard will LeMahieu really work over the next seven months knowing that he isn’t returning to the Senate? He doesn’t have a vested interest in preserving the majority, and thus logic dictates that he isn’t going to devote nearly as many days to fundraising calls or as many nights and weekends to dinners and events.
Someone who is returning to the Senate and does have a vested interest in holding the majority would almost certainly work much harder, and for that reason LeMahieu must cede his leadership to that person.
This isn’t just the right move for the Republican caucus; it’s also the right move for LeMahieu personally. Right now, his last act as Senate Majority Leader is to advance a bill that half of his caucus (and more than half of their voters) vehemently opposed. Does he really want that to be his legacy?
Instead, his final move could be to graciously step aside and hand party leadership to someone who would fight tooth and nail from now until November to keep the Senate from falling to Democrats.
It would be a noble self-sacrifice and go a long way to restoring LeMahieu’s reputation as a man who cares about his caucus than himself.
