Reid's red-state defectors

Harry Reid was elected by Senate Democrats as minority leader on Thursday but faced several “no” votes from red staters who took deep Democratic losses last week as a stamp of public disapproval in the Senate’s leadership.

Defectors included Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who faces a Republican challenger in a runoff race to keep her seat in December. McCaskill was the first Democratic senator to publicly announce her opposition to Reid; Heitkamp and Manchin had refused to say how they would vote going into the elections.


Later Thursday, aides to Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, who just narrowly won reelection, said the two had voted against Reid. An aide to Kaine said he “voted no because he believes the caucus should have had a more thorough discussion on strategy before taking a leadership vote.”

The dissenting Democrats did not propose another Democratic leader for the caucus but instead asked for a weeklong delay to talk about fallout from the party’s disastrous midterm elections. That effort failed but allowed moderate Democrats who opposed Reid as leader to flex their muscles ahead of the GOP’s Senate takeover.

“Harry Reid’s a good man, and I have respect for Harry. I just voted for different leadership,” Manchin told a separate swell of reporters. “In West Virginia, I heard it loud and clear: There were no ifs, ands or buts about it. They did not like the direction we were going.”

After she voted against Reid, McCaskill said the Democratic leader “understood” her position because she frequently tells him “things he may not want to hear.” And she told a crowd of reporters that she thought the loss of as many as nine Senate seats this cycle served as a strong message that change was needed at the top.

McCaskill wouldn’t say whether she was considering a run for governor, which many speculated was her motivation.

“The only thing I’m talking about in Missouri is Ferguson. We have a very, very critical moment in our state. And I don’t think it’s time to talk about politics of 2016 right now.”

Landrieu, who still has a runoff election to contend with, voted against Reid one day after he and other leaders cleared the way for a vote to approve the Keystone XL pipeline after months of false starts. Reid helped quell liberal Democrats’ concerns about the pipeline with the message that Keystone was inevitable with the Republican takeover.

But it was not enough for the Louisiana Democrat.

“This morning, I cast my vote against the status quo leadership to send a signal of my determination to continue to be an independent voice on behalf of the people of Louisiana,” Landrieu said in a statement.

Heitkamp confirmed in a brief interview that she voted against Reid but declined to expound at the time: “That’s all I’m going to say.” Heitkamp later issued a statement explaining that the Senate needs to shift gears going forward.

“The clearest message from the recent election is that Congress needs to change and get to work. We need to show the American people that we hear them by implementing real, tangible changes to help restore trust,” Heitkamp said.

Reid’s opposition signaled a fresh warning to him as he prepares for life in the minority — and he acknowledged such after the four-hour caucus meeting. He did not take blame for the dearth of votes on amendments under his rule, but he resolved not to seek retribution against Republicans, a signal that he heard Democrats, like McCaskill, who are asking him to work with Republicans.

“This is not ‘get even’ time. I do not intend to run the Democratic Caucus like the Republican Caucus has been run in the minority. I am not going to do that,” he said. “We want to legislate; we’re not for stalling.”

Despite the consternation, Reid critics represent a small contingent in a Democratic Caucus expected to have 46 or 47 members next Congress. Reid was overwhelmingly supported as minority leader, with his chief deputies, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chuck Schumer of New York and Patty Murray of Washington serving alongside him. He named both freshman Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) to serve in leadership roles, praising Warren for her messaging and Klobuchar for her bipartisan entreaties.

The appointments mean three women are now in the upper Democratic ranks, joining Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).

“Women think differently than men. And I am so impressed with the women I have in my caucus that I wanted to reach out to them because they represent what America’s all about,” he said.