U.S. Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will keep the post in the next legislature after winning a secret party leadership vote Wednesday that pitted him against Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott. – candidate, reports CNN, citing News.ro.

Rick Scott was the first challenger Mitch McConnell, 80, had in his 15 years as Senate Republican leader.

McConnell spokesman David Popp confirmed the results of the secret ballot but did not specify the tally. According to sources cited by the US press, McConnell won with 37 votes in favor, 10 against and one abstention.

The re-election of Mitch Connell, a moderate Republican who will become the Senate’s longest-serving party leader in the next Congress, came after days in a row of him being named as one of the “culprits” of lower-than-expected results in the midterm presidential elections, in which Republicans failed to win majority in the Senate.

On the other hand, Mitch Connell’s re-election comes on the same day that former President Donald Trump, whom other voices blamed for his election loss, announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.

McConnell will know by January whether he will run against the slim Democratic majority in the US Senate, which currently holds 50 seats and the deciding vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, or whether Democrats will extend their lead to 51 seats.

On December 6, the state of Georgia will host a runoff election for the US Senate between Republican Herschel Walker, who is supported by Trump, and current Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock.