Barrasso plans run for Senate GOP leadership

WASHINGTON — Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, one of the potential top contenders to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell as Senate Republican leader, has decided instead to seek the No. 2 position.

Barrasso, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, told his colleagues Tuesday he was running to be what is officially known as the assistant Republican leader but is informally called the whip. The spot is being vacated by Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, who declared this week he would seek the top job following the decision by McConnell, the longtime party leader from Kentucky, to step down at the end of the year.

In a letter to fellow Senate Republicans, Barrasso suggested he would offer a more aggressive style of leadership, and said he hoped his performance in leadership positions in recent years had shown he could deliver.

“One thing that is clear to me is that the Republicans in the Senate need to break from where we are now,” he wrote. “We need change. We need to stand up and fight aggressively for our Republican priorities. We cannot afford missed opportunities.”

His announcement came one day after Thune, who had made clear he intended to try to succeed McConnell, told home-state media he was definitely running.

“For me, it’s really about trying to be a difference-maker,” Thune told Dakota News Now in a report published Monday. “I think I have something to contribute there. I think we’re ready for a new generation of consistent, principled, conservative leadership for Republicans in the United States Senate that empowers our individual members.”