{"id":11629,"date":"2025-07-24T12:04:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T12:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-thune-dishes-on-his-2026-midterms-strategy\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T12:04:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T12:04:27","slug":"capitol-agenda-thune-dishes-on-his-2026-midterms-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-thune-dishes-on-his-2026-midterms-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Thune dishes on his 2026 midterms strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

John Thune\u2019s approach to the midterms is a shaping up to be a mix of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.<\/p>\n

In an interview previewing his 2026 strategy, the South Dakota Republican told Blue Light News that he\u2019s already \u201ccoordinating closely\u201d with Trump, including giving recommendations on potential candidates.<\/p>\n

The majority leader\u2019s goal is to make sure that the Senate GOP campaign wing is \u201crolling in the same direction\u201d as Trump and Trump\u2019s political arm.<\/p>\n

But Thune said he\u2019s willing to intervene in contested GOP primaries where he thinks a candidate would be doomed in the general election \u2013 an old McConnell tactic that sometimes annoyed others in the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all about preserving and protecting and expanding our majority,\u201d Thune said. \u201cSo we want the best candidates on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thune has three states so far where GOP senators are retiring: Alabama, Kentucky and North Carolina. Each is likely to have a competitive primary that pits factions of the party against each other.<\/p>\n

In North Carolina, Thune said in Wednesday’s interview that he had spoken with Lara Trump about the seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Thom Tillis. Thune said the president\u2019s daughter-in-law \u201cwould be great\u201d before dropping the caveat, \u201cif she were to decide to do it.\u201d Thune hinted we could hear more soon. Four GOP senators granted anonymity to speak candidly said Wednesday evening they didn’t expect her to jump in. On Thursday, Blue Light News broke the news<\/a> that Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley was entering the race and that Lara Trump had opted out.<\/p>\n

Thune\u2019s potential primary problems aren\u2019t limited to seats where Republicans are retiring. They\u2019re facing a likely jam-packed primary field in Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp passed on challenging Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, whose own party is bullish about keeping his seat. Thune said he believes the state is a \u201creal pick-up opportunity\u201d but that Republicans \u201cneed a good candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thune also has work to do in Iowa, with some of his members concerned<\/a> that GOP Sen. Joni Ernst might retire. Thune believes she\u2019ll run, and in the meantime has \u201cencouraged her to, and told her we\u2019ll do everything we can to help her\u201d if she does.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Texas. Thune said it \u201cremains to be seen\u201d if Trump will get behind Sen. John Cornyn, who is facing off against MAGA favorite Ken Paxton. Thune said Trump \u201cwants to see how the race plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The majority leader said he believes Cornyn would be \u201cby far the best general election candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about Paxton\u2019s recently-announced divorce \u2013 with his wife citing \u201cbiblical\u201d reasons for the breakup \u2013 Thune said voters will realize \u201cthere\u2019s a real contrast between these candidates, both in terms of experience and accomplishment, but also I think that those character issues are always a factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not all Thune told us. He made news on Mike Johnson and Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, his CR strategy<\/a> and more that Blue Light News Pro readers got in an exclusive Q&A<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 About that shutdown deadline: <\/b>Thune said Congress will need to pass a short-term funding bill to prevent a shutdown in October. His plan is to get signed into law as many of the 12 appropriations bills as possible, then use the patch to fund the rest of the government.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Epstein issue poised to resurface: <\/b>Speaker Mike Johnson has been putting out fires in his conference related to the Jeffrey Epstein files and sent the House home early for recess. Some of his members have warned that they\u2019ll try to force votes upon their return if the administration doesn\u2019t deliver more documents.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Cooper watch: <\/b>Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to announce a campaign for Senate as soon as Monday, according to two people familiar with his decision. The announcement would be enthusiastically welcomed by state and national Democrats as North Carolina represents one of the few offensive opportunities for the party.<\/p>\n

Meredith Lee Hill and Elena Schneider contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Thune\u2019s approach to the midterms is a shaping up to be a mix of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell. In an interview previewing his 2026 strategy, the South Dakota Republican told Blue Light News that he\u2019s already \u201ccoordinating closely\u201d with Trump, including giving recommendations on potential candidates. The majority leader\u2019s goal is to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}