WV Sen. Shelley Moore Capito to launch Senate Republican leadership bid

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., plans on running for Senate Republican leadership in 2023, she told The Hill. 

She plans on running for vice chair of the Senate Republican Conference, the outlet reports. Capito, 68, was first elected to Congress in 2000. She became West Virginia's first female senator in 2015 and has served as counsel to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., ever since. 

"I will be seeking to join the elected leadership team," Capito told The Hill. "I just think I have a good sense of American families and voices of West Virginians and also what the conference is thinking."

Capito will need to be elected by the Senate Republican Conference after the November midterm elections.

"Working with the conference that sometimes has diverse views to try to pull it together to where we share the common goals and how we’re going to get there and then working with obviously the leader and others to put forward good policy directives, good political objectives and then communicating that not just to the members but to the country at large," Capito told The Hill.

She said she views the role of vice chair, the No. 5 role in Senate GOP leadership, as mostly a "communications position."

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who currently holds the No. 5 position, is expected to seek the No. 4 spot, which retiring Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., currently occupies.

Ernst told The Hill she would back Capito's bid for vice chair.

"I love it," Ernst said. "I am very excited about her running. I think that she will do just a fantastic job. She has my full support."