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John Thune’s political persona is light years away from Donald Trump’s: He’s a wonky and friendly Midwesterner who spent six years as Mitch McConnell’s No. 2 Senate Republican leader.
He even supported one of Trump’s primary rivals in 2024.
And Thune wielded those same qualities to get elected on Wednesday as the majority leader of a Republican-controlled Senate under Trump.
After fielding hours of private questions from his colleagues on Tuesday evening about how he would enact the president-elect’s agenda, Thune prevailed in a tight election to succeed McConnell. Although he’s a McConnell protege and an adherent to the Senate’s clubby traditions, Thune also responded to the clamor in his party to do things differently than the current leader – and his colleagues rewarded him.
Senate Republicans voted to promote Thune over Sen. John Cornyn, a former No. 2 leader, and Sen. Rick Scott, the favorite of many Trump allies. Trump did not weigh in on the race as all three candidates spent time cultivating him this year, despite efforts by many in his network to cast Thune as an unwelcome continuation of the McConnell era. After Scott was eliminated in the first round of voting, Thune picked up enough of the Floridian’s votes to beat Cornyn, 29-24.
Thune will now have lots of work to do to move past eight months of competition among him, Cornyn and Scott as he juggles Trump’s demands with the stuffy norms of the Senate. His first move on Wednesday was a vow to push through Trump’s Cabinet nominees and protect the legislative filibuster at a celebratory press conference that only hinted at the challenges ahead.
“We will do the job that the founders intended us to do in the United Senate and that the American people intended us to do. And that right now after this mandate election coming out of the American people, is to work with this president,” Thune told reporters after a marathon four-hour leadership election.
Thune capitalized on his close relationships with most Republican members to break through; senators could be seen coming in and out of his office over the past few months at a head-spinning rate. Even so, Thune pitched himself as a break from McConnell, who is stepping down as GOP leader at the end of the year.
“Thune is not McConnell, and he has a different type of leadership style than that,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, a top Thune backer. “I’ve seen the way he led when McConnell went down, when he wasn’t able to be there. And I really enjoyed his leadership style.”
Those qualities were on display on Tuesday evening in the Capitol room where Republicans holed up for hours quizzing Thune, Cornyn and Scott about how they would work with Trump. The questions were tough: Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., asked them if they would commit to building Trump’s border wall; other senators asked where Thune stood on allowing Trump to do recess appointments.
Thune responded that the Senate budget process offers the potential to deliver more border wall money without Democratic votes, and he promised to grind through confirming Trump’s nominees. He also was asked about overhauling entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare.
“I want to do hard things, but only if you guys agree or the majority of the conference agrees. And only if we can persuade the Republican president to work with us,” Thune responded of Trump, according to an attendee who found the answer refreshing – and added that it didn’t tick anyone off.
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Thune flirted with retiring from Congress in 2022 after Trump threatened him with a primary challenge and it wasn’t clear when McConnell would step down. After his colleagues lobbied him to run again, Thune easily won reelection and then ran point the last two years on much of the Senate GOP’s floor operation, working with fellow Republicans and coordinating with independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to keep the floor moving in tandem with Senate Democrats.
Thune has a different style and background than Cornyn, who similarly has maneuvered to be McConnell’s heir for years now; neither of them hid their ambitions to succeed him. Whereas Cornyn is a political brawler, the bespectacled Thune is lower-key.
Unlike Cornyn or Scott, he has not run the National Republican Senatorial Committee, but Thune stepped up his political activities and appeared across the country in key Senate races.
Still, the task ahead for Thune is enormous. On the one hand, he needs to manage his 52 GOP colleagues and his relationship with Trump to move the party’s agenda, all while working to make sure Democrats don’t derail or delay his plans.
On the other hand, he has to immediately move to defend his narrow majority in 2026 and align with the top Senate Republican super PAC in order to do so. Losing the majority after two years would seriously rein in Trump’s ambitions.
Thune said incoming campaign chair Tim Scott, R-S.C., is working quickly to expand the Senate majority in two years. Scott framed his work as designed to ensure “Trump doesn’t have two years of a Republican majority, he has four years.”
Burgess’s view
In the traditional sense, Thune was the establishment candidate. But he’s also a plug-and-play majority leader who’s telegenic and has conservative credibility on many issues, including immigration and guns. Those factors, plus years-long relationships with key GOP senators, gave Thune tools that Scott did not have.
And he had an inherent advantage over Cornyn simply by virtue of timing; the Texan was term-limited from the whip office in 2018.
Republicans chose the person who has occupied the driver’s seat for them longer than anyone but McConnell over the past few years, placing a bet that acumen will most effectively move Trump’s agenda. When McConnell stepped away after a fall last year, Thune basically took over at times and demonstrated what kind of leader he would be.
Still, there will almost certainly be lingering tension between Thune and MAGA world. People close to Trump may always be skeptical of Thune’s distaste for his challenge to the 2020 election or his endorsement of Tim Scott in this year’s presidential primary.
But Trump has shown he can look past previous transgressions: After all, he picked JD Vance, once a staunch Trump critic, as his vice president.