Meet John Thune, the man who Republicans just chose to replace Mitch McConnell
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- GOP senators chose Sen. John Thune to be the next Senate Majority Leader.
- He's a top Mitch McConnell ally and an occasional Trump critic, endorsing against him in the primary.
- Elon Musk and the MAGA online right had pushed for Sen. Rick Scott.
On Wednesday, Republicans chose Sen. John Thune of South Dakota to be the next Senate Majority Leader.
That's despite an online pressure campaign waged by Elon Musk and others in support of Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who pitched himself as the candidate most loyal to President-elect Donald Trump and his agenda.
Thune won with 29 votes, with Sen. John Cornyn of Texas coming close at 24 votes. Scott was eliminated after the first round of voting, where he received 13 votes — just three more than the 10 he got when he challenged McConnell in 2022.
The new GOP leader, who will officially assume the position in January, will now be tasked with working closely with Trump to advance the party's agenda. That includes confirming Cabinet appointees and filling judicial vacancies — including at the Supreme Court, if any of the current justices retire — along with working next year to implement Trump's tax agenda.
It also marks an end to Sen. Mitch McConnell's 18-year reign as the top Republican in the Senate.
McConnell, a frequent Trump critic, has said that he plans to focus on defense policy for the next two years as a rank-and-file senator. The Kentucky senator has not said whether he will run for reelection in 2026.
An occasional Trump critic who backed Tim Scott in 2024
Thune, a former at-large congressman from South Dakota, lost a razor-thin Senate race in 2002 before narrowly ousting then-Democratic Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle from office in 2004.
A reliable conservative, Thune chaired the Senate Republican Conference from 2012 to 2019 before becoming the chamber's majority whip from 2019 until 2021. After Democrats regained control of the chamber in 2021, he became minority whip.
The South Dakota Republican has been critical of Trump in the past, calling on him to withdraw from the presidential race in 2016 after the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape. He also called Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election "inexcusable" and repeatedly expressed a preference for a different standard-bearer during the 2024 GOP primary, leading to him endorsing Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Thune overcame a campaign from some of Trump's allies to stop him from becoming majority leader, despite the senator's willingness to allow the president-elect to make recess appointments — and thus circumvent the confirmation process to his nominees — once he's in office in January.
"One thing is clear: We must act quickly and decisively to get the president's cabinet and other nominees in place as soon as possible to start delivering on the mandate we've been sent to execute, and all options are on the table to make that happen, including recess appointments," the senator told Fox News Digital on Sunday.
"We cannot let Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats block the will of the American people," he continued.
Thune stressed to Trump his experience in the upper chamber and knowledge of congressional rules in making the case for his ascent to majority leader, according to The New York Times.