How John Thune is trying to save the Senate for Republicans

McALLEN, Texas — John Thune is ramping up his sales pitch as he tries to turn the GOP’s attention toward November and keeping the Senate majority.

But as the majority leader campaigned along the U.S.-Mexico border Friday with a coalition of Republicans up for reelection this year, he acknowledged challenges so far in promoting the legislative centerpiece of the party’s message — not to mention what he called the midterm “headwinds” facing any party in power.

Thune is betting that an aggressive campaign blitz between now and the fall, and a hopefully burgeoning economy, will help Republicans keep and potentially grow their 53-seat majority — even as voters seem indifferent about the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” and President Donald Trump struggles in sticking to a kitchen-table script.

Having Republicans back home touting the party line, Thune said, will help.

“Last year, our members were in many cases, for obvious reasons, in Washington, trying to get the job done,” Thune said in an interview. “But now that we're in an even-numbered year and people are out running for reelection, I think having us as a body focus very directly on the message that we're delivering to the American people is going to make a big difference.”

He also acknowledged that Democrats leapt out of the gate last year in hammering the GOP megabill even before it was finished, adding that “they have the advantage of being the opposition party.”

On Friday, Thune & Co. attempted to turn the tide by highlighting the border security resources that were included in the sprawling policy package that also included tax cuts, defense spending and energy initiatives, among other legislative potpourri.

Republicans started out the 2026 cycle as odds-on favorites for keeping control of the Senate. They still have an edge, according to most forecasters. But Democrats have made a dent in the GOP’s advantage by securing big-name recruits in key races as Republicans face some heated and costly intraparty primaries.

Success will depend in large part on the Republicans who joined Thune Friday in Texas. Michael Whatley, who is running to succeed North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, and former Rep. Mike Rogers, who is looking to flip the seat held by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters in Michigan, joined several in-cycle GOP incumbents, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn.

Thune showered particular praise on Cornyn, who is fighting for his political life in a three-way primary. Underscoring the nasty internal fight facing the GOP, rival Ken Paxton — the state attorney general and one of Cornyn’s primary opponents — accused Cornyn of trying to “rewrite history” with the border trip and predicted that his career will end in “national embarrassment.”

Thune’s effort to use his bully pulpit to focus on the party’s legislative accomplishments comes as Republicans continue to fret that they haven’t done enough to sell the megabill. Many wonder in hindsight whether their decision to pack so many priorities together into a single piece of legislation — a decision driven in part by the party-line budget reconciliation process — was ill-conceived.

“We’ve talked about that,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said in an interview Friday on the sidelines of a news conference at the border wall where it took four placards to display all the highlights from the megabill.

“Secure Border, More Money, New Opportunities,” read a sign on the podium summarizing the legislation.

But an overstuffed domestic policy bill is far from the top concern for Republicans who remain nervous about addressing Americans’ anxieties about the steeply rising cost of living.

While many GOP leaders spent the final months of 2025 vowing to focus on affordability issues — and Thune vowed Friday Republicans would in 2026 — the opening days of the year have been focused abroad after Trump ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. The military action sparked a fiery debate in Congress about presidential war powers that threaten to blot out other matters.

“It’s certainly going to consume the news cycle for a while,” said Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota in an interview in the Capitol this week.

It certainly has preoccupied Trump, who lashed out at five Senate Republicans who joined with Democrats Thursday to advance a measure constraining his future military moves in Venezuela. One of them, Susan Collins of Maine, is up for reelection, and Trump announced publicly that she and the other four “should never be elected to office again.”

Thune said he had a “very spirited” conversation with Trump before he delivered the attacks and acknowledged his frustrations. But Thune said he was focused on keeping Republicans “united as much as possible and work[ing] with the president.”

The two are viewed as having a good personal relationship, with Trump publicly praising Thune throughout 2025 — a transformation from just a few years before, when Trump threatened to back a primary challenger against the South Dakotan. Thune, in turn, repeatedly praised Trump and his work on the border Friday.

That doesn’t mean they don’t have their differences. Thune, with the backing of his conference, has rebuffed Trump’s demands to nix the filibuster and other Senate norms that preserve minority power. They have also clashed on policy — most conspicuously on the president’s aggressive use of tariffs which have negatively impacted farmers in Thune’s home state.

Thune acknowledged they sometimes don’t see eye-to-eye but added he views his job as needing to “protect the institution … maintain it as the founders intended as a check and balance.”

Thune reiterated Friday that he’s labored to hash out most of those differences behind the scenes, seeking to avoid any public blowups that would suck up political oxygen and potentially force his members to choose sides.

That said, he added, “there are times, yes, where you have to push back” — pointing back to the conversation on the war powers resolution, which Thune opposed.

Pushing back could be trickier in an election year, when Republicans need to be in lockstep as they make their case for another two years in power on Capitol Hill while Trump seeks to lock in a presidential legacy and otherwise enforce his will over the party.

Beyond dealing with Trump’s angry outburst, Thune is trying to keep the party — and the president — singing from the same hymnal heading into November.

“Obviously, yesterday he was frustrated, but I think there's going to be a lot to point to in terms of a record of accomplishment for him and for him working with us,” Thune said of Trump. “As we get out there and talk about it, I think it’ll start to change the perceptions and the views in the public.”

Alex Gangitano contributed to this report.