After 18 years under Mitch McConnell’s leadership, scores of Republican lawmakers are vying for majority leader in the new Republican Party-controlled Senate. The leadership election is expected to take place on Wednesday and will be conducted by secret ballot, meaning senators can vote anonymously.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott — the longshot candidate who has the support of a handful of conservative senators and MAGA influencers — is seeking the job. But Scott is still a significant underdog, with GOP Whip John Thune of South Dakota and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas the favorites.

This is what you can expect: The election begins at 9:30 a.m. ET in the old Senate chamber.

The races for each leadership post are voted on in descending order. The vote for the Republican leader in the Senate will take place first.

Thune, Cornyn and Scott can receive up to two nomination speeches and then make their own remarks.

Nominating speeches: Thune will receive nomination speeches from Mike Rounds, a fellow South Dakotan senator, and Sen. Steve Daines, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee who helped lead Republicans to a Republican majority last week.

Scott will be nominated by Sen. Marco Rubio, a fellow Floridian, and Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee.

Cornyn’s office is not saying who will give the nomination speeches.

A GOP leadership aide tells CNN that there could also be discussion about the candidates after their speeches, which could take some time.

Secret ballot: Once the discussion is completed, senators will vote by secret ballot. This means that no other senator, no staffer, and no, not even President-elect Donald Trump will know who voted for whom.

Then Senator John Barrasso and his team will map the votes. If no candidate receives the majority or 27 votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and they vote again between the remaining two candidates, meaning there could be multiple rounds of voting.

State of affairs in the Senate: Winning the majority in the US Senate is a victory for Republicans, who have been excluded from the majority in the House since 2021. With one race yet to be called — Pennsylvania — Republicans will have at least 52 seats in the House.