Repub­li­cans need to win back Sen­ate before wor­ry­ing about McConnell suc­ces­sor, Black­burn says

Sen. Mar­sha Black­burn (R‑TN) said the race to suc­ceed Sen­ate Minor­i­ty Leader Mitch McConnell (R‑KY) should not be a major focus in the months lead­ing up to the 2024 elec­tion, and instead Repub­li­cans should be con­cen­trat­ing on tak­ing con­trol of the upper cham­ber.
McConnell announced that he would step away from lead­er­ship in late Feb­ru­ary, throw­ing pos­si­ble suc­ces­sors into an extend­ed bat­tle to suc­ceed him in the midst of the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion.
While many Repub­li­cans are feel­ing good about their chances of tak­ing con­trol of the Sen­ate this cycle, there are still a lot of unknowns about which Sen­ate can­di­dates might suc­ceed, how big their major­i­ty may be, and if for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump takes back the White House. 
“I think what we need to do is to take the major­i­ty and then cross that bridge when we are ready to get to it,” Black­burn said dur­ing an inter­view with the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er fol­low­ing a vis­it to the bor­der in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Tues­day. 
Sens. John Thune (R‑SD) and John Cornyn (R‑TX) announced their inten­tions to run to replace McConnell as the Sen­ate Repub­li­can leader, while Sen. Rick Scott (R‑FL) has expressed a poten­tial inter­est. When asked if any of her Repub­li­can col­leagues had been active­ly cam­paign­ing for her vote, …