Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has reportedly shot down Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) hopes of bringing him into the majority fold.
According to a New York Times report Monday evening, Pompeo told McConnell that he has no plans to run for Senate this year, four people briefed on the meeting told the Times.
Although he quietly mulled a Senate campaign for months, Pompeo told senior party officials that he is ruling out a Senate campaign launch in light of the President Trump-authorized strike that killed top Iranian military official Qasem Soleimani last week, several people who directly spoke to the secretary of state told the Times.
Despite how the filing deadline for the primary isn’t until June, administration officials told the Times that Pompeo appeared adamant about refusing to enter the race.
The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Republicans are concerned about retiring Sen. Pat Roberts’ (R-KS) seat and would much prefer Pompeo to current contender and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
Last month, Pompeo was evasive during a “Fox and Friends” segment when asked about whether he planned on running for Senate in Kansas in 2020, saying that it is his “intention to continue to stay and serve as President Trump’s secretary of state.”
The Washington Post reported last month that given the mixed signals Pompeo displayed regarding a potential Kansas Senate run — such as his multiple visits to his home state last year and an appearance with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center last month — several officials within the Trump administration had begun to position themselves as potential replacements.
It’s not the first time Pompeo has dashed McConnell’s hopes of a potential Senate run. Last February, Pompeo flatly said that a Senate run was “ruled out” during an interview on the “Today” show.
Read the Times’ report here.
“He’s buggered off! So he has. He’s scarpered!”
Pompeo, a compulsive liar, is not running for Kansas Senator because his private polling numbers are terrible. His cover story is farcical.
It’ll get leaked soon. Count on it.
You mean the good people of Kansas are holding against him that he is not as repulsive as Kris Kobach? There must be too much cattle feces polluting the water in Kansas, that why such an affinity to Bullshit.
I had a feeling that he must have decided this after listening to some of his blathering over the weekend about the attack. It was just so over the top, and risky considering how many outstanding questions there are, and how much blowback could be coming, that switching to a Senate race seemed implausible. And, apparently it will be…whatever pushed him to give up on the race, good. Kansas Republicans may try to work against Kobach, but he seems to have the right wingers in his corner, hopefully he wins the primary and loses the election.
A Democratic Senate seat in Kansas makes it that much more likely the Democrats retake the Senate, which is pretty much necessary either to stop Trump and the Republicans from doing even more damage if he wins again, or for the Democrats to get anything done when the Republicans decide to block all appointments at any cost.
KS senate race will be interesting whether Pompeo runs or not. Wish professional political analysts would weigh in since 2018 saw real shifts including electing a Democratic Governor and flipping the suburban KC Johnson county from an incumbent Republican to Democrat Sharice Davis. A red state could be in play with a Republican turned Democrat as one of the Democrats running in the D primary.