The GOP establishment is closing ranks around Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) after calls from some rank-and-file Republicans to delay holding a vote on future leadership following the midterm elections which proved to be less than stellar for a party that expected to win a lot due to Joe Biden’s unpopularity.

“McConnell lapdog RINO Barrasso refuses to delay leadership vote, pushing ahead for vote this week before GA election is over,” Fox News host and conservative commentator Mark Levin noted on social media platform Gettr, in reference to Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyoming). “This is how McConnell and his Senate hatchet men continue to hold power over the GOP.  And, of course, they continue to get support from their DC media chorus, as demonstrated here earlier.”

His post contained a link to a Breitbart News story that noted:

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) on Friday shut down attempts to remove Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) from his leadership position in the Senate by writing a letter Friday to Republican senators denying their request to delay Wednesday’s leadership vote.

Barrasso, one of McConnell’s top lieutenants, wrote a letter Friday to GOP senators denying their request to delay Wednesday’s leadership vote until after all Senate votes had been counted.

“We look forward to meeting next week with our new and returning members. I expect a full and open discussion beginning at Tuesday’s policy lunch on our path forward,” he wrote in a letter obtained by CNN. “On Wednesday we will meet again for our scheduled conference for elections.”

“I welcome the questions and points made in the letter circulated by Senators Rick Scott, Lee and Johnson,” Barrasso, who is in charge of leadership elections, wrote.

Barrasso’s letter comes after Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Mike Lee (R-UT) all voiced opposition to holding a leadership vote before the Senate race in Georgia is decided.

“We are all disappointed that a Red Wave failed to materialize, and there are multiple reasons it did not,” the letter reads. “We need to have serious discussions within our conference as to why and what we can do to improve our chances in 2024.”

“The Senate GOP leadership vote next week should be postponed,” Rubio tweeted on Friday. “First we need to make sure that those who want to lead us are genuinely committed to fighting for the priorities & values of the working Americans (of every background) who gave us big wins in states like #Florida.”

Hawley agreed, tweeting, “Exactly right.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox Business Network’s “Mornings With Maria” Bartiromo on Thursday that Republicans did not do as well in the 2022 midterm election as he expected.

“There were races we thought we were going to win that we didn’t, and there were people we didn’t think we’d lose that we did. I think for Republicans, this may be as big a time to reassess and look at things as it is for Democrats,” Gingrich said.

“Ron DeSantis got a huge boost and he is much more likely to run for president now. President Trump has to be looking at some of this and thinking about it because he worked very hard. He led a huge rally in Miami with Marco Rubio and Rick Scott two nights before the election, so he can take some credit. But I think DeSantis is probably the biggest single winner of the night. That means he will be, for everybody who doesn’t want Trump, Ron DeSantis will now become far and away the leading alternative and the superstar,” he said.