Tesla CEO Elon Musk and US President-elect Donald Trump.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Businessman Elon Musk, an ally of President-elect Donald Trump, endorsed Republican Senator Rick Scott for U.S. Senate majority leader on Sunday as Trump pushed candidates for the influential post to help him make changes quickly after his party won control of the chamber.
Republicans are expected to hold at least 52 seats in the 100-member Senate after capturing three previously held by Democrats in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana in last Tuesday's election.
Current Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who has led his party in the chamber since 2007, is not seeking election to the post.
"Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader!" Musk, a tech billionaire who has emerged as a major backer of Trump in recent months, wrote in a social media post on Sunday.
Trump has not yet endorsed anyone in race for majority leader.
Musk is the world's wealthiest person. Scott, who represents Florida in the Senate, is a former healthcare executive and the wealthiest sitting senator.
In an interview on Fox News on Sunday, Scott said the Senate needs to implement real change.
"We can't keep doing what we're doing," Scott said. "That's what Donald Trump got elected to do, to be the change."
In a tweet on Sunday, Trump said anyone seeking to be Senate majority leader must agree not to stand in the way of temporary presidential appointments being made when the Senate is not in session.
During Senate sessions, senators exercising their constitutional power to provide its "advice and consent" hold hearings and confirmation votes for presidential appointmees such as Cabinet heads of massive government agencies including the Defense Department and Department of Health and Human Services.
Scott responded on X that he agreed with Trump's demand, which would enable the incoming president to quickly fill posts, even if only temporarily. Two other Republican senators vying to lead the body - John Thune and John Cornyn - later posted their support for Trump's push to quickly fill appointments.
Trump campaigned on promises, among other things, to deport immigrants who are in the United States illegally, cut taxes, impose tariffs on international trading partners and loosen fiscal policy.
Scott has the backing of several hard-right Republican senators, but it remains whether he can bring Republican moderates to his side.
Senate Republican leadership elections are scheduled for Wednesday, shortly after the chamber returns to work following a recess for the Nov. 5 elections.
The outcome of two Senate races - in Pennsylvania and Arizona - has not yet been called by Edison Research.
House control still unclear
Control of the US House of Representatives has not yet been decided. Republicans already have won 214 seats, according to Edison, just shy of the 218 needed to retain their current majority.
If Republicans lead both chambers, it would mean that most of Trump's agenda would have a much greater likelihood of winning congressional approval than if Democrats controlled one of them.
Partial results show Republicans have a narrow lead in nine of the remaining uncalled House races and Democrats in seven, according to a New York Times analysis, although many thousands of votes remain to be counted.
Most of the remaining House seats are in Western states, where vote tallying typically takes longer than elsewhere in the country.