{"id":17061,"date":"2025-12-23T09:47:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T09:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/these-3-republican-senators-are-giving-john-thune-headaches\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T09:47:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T09:47:01","slug":"these-3-republican-senators-are-giving-john-thune-headaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/these-3-republican-senators-are-giving-john-thune-headaches\/","title":{"rendered":"These 3 Republican senators are giving John Thune headaches"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

As Senate Majority Leader John Thune<\/a> rushed to advance a new funding package this month, he faced a familiar roadblock: a trio of conservatives from his conference\u2019s right flank.<\/p>\n

Republican Sens. Rick Scott<\/a> of Florida, Ron Johnson<\/a> of Wisconsin and Mike Lee<\/a> of Utah banded together as they sought to advance key conservative priorities, including an end to spending earmarks \u2014 holding out for weeks<\/a> as Thune strained to keep the 2026 funding process on track and avoid another costly government shutdown on Jan. 30.<\/p>\n

The tensions between the fiscal hawks, who want to drastically slash spending, and more pragmatic corners of the Senate GOP, including members of leadership and the Appropriations Committee, are nothing new. But these hard-liners have now found a larger pool of allies as the conference\u2019s center of gravity slowly shifts right. They also have new perches of authority that give each a powerful megaphone.<\/p>\n

Thune ultimately wore the three Republicans down with some outside assistance from President Donald Trump, cutting deals to win their consent to advance the proposed trillion-dollar \u201cminibus\u201d funding package. Ultimately, it was Democratic objections that prevented the Senate from acting<\/a> in the final legislative days of 2025.<\/p>\n

But Lee, Johnson and Scott are unapologetic about using their power amid the growing perception among some of their colleagues that they are frequent thorns in Thune\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re actually trying to do important things,\u201d Johnson said in an interview. \u201cNo matter what I would have done, Democrats would have held out until the very last minute, too. So, I mean, sorry about your frustrations, colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since January, the trio has chosen to exert their leverage during key moments where GOP leaders have sought party unity. As Thune worked to advance the party\u2019s sprawling domestic policy bill over the summer, the three Republicans haggled repeatedly over the measure\u2019s parameters \u2014 including during a procedural vote that was left open for hours as they negotiated. Last month, they briefly withheld support for the bill<\/a> that ultimately ended the 43-day government shutdown, huddling with Thune before ultimately voting in favor.<\/p>\n

Publicly, their colleagues are respectful and note that every senator has a right to use the legislative tools available to advance their own agenda.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Hoeven<\/a> (R-N.D.), an appropriator and Thune ally, noted that Johnson, Scott and Lee \u201creflect a bigger share of the caucus\u201d that is decidedly conservative, while \u201cfolks on the other end of the caucus\u201d also use their leverage from time to time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s just how it works,\u201d Hoeven said.<\/p>\n

But behind the scenes, the hardball tactics have rankled Republican senators. As the spending standoff dragged on in recent weeks, some privately urged Thune to call the fiscal hawks\u2019 bluff by putting the spending package on the floor, essentially daring Johnson or others to publicly object.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to keep doing it until they call his hand,\u201d one GOP senator said about Johnson, adding that Thune risked being \u201cmiserable\u201d unless he asserted himself.<\/p>\n

A second GOP senator, who was also granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal conference dynamics, added that the trio has been more \u201cemboldened\u201d this year than under prior GOP leader Mitch McConnell<\/a> of Kentucky. The senator said that\u2019s due to Thune\u2019s \u201clooser\u201d leadership style and his determination to move funding bills individually rather than simply banking on a single omnibus deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t done an appropriations process in a long time,\u201d the senator added.<\/p>\n

Those tensions have played out quietly behind the scenes in GOP lunches, with the conservative trio at times sparring with Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins<\/a> (R-Maine) and other members of the government funding panel who want to revise spending levels enacted under former President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

But the two GOP senators agreed that they did not think Lee, Scott and Johnson would be engaging in their current tactics were McConnell still in charge, or even under Collins\u2019 predecessor<\/a> as Appropriations chair, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.).<\/p>\n

\u201cShelby would have taken away every one of their projects,\u201d the first GOP senator said.<\/p>\n

The shift in leadership style was by design. The same GOP senators kvetched that McConnell was too centralized, with Scott unsuccessfully challenging him in 2002. In his bid to take over as Republican leader<\/a> two years later, Thune pledged to shift power back to individual senators and committee chairs \u2014 and the three conservative malcontents, once dismissed as outliers, are now more difficult to ignore.<\/p>\n

Scott leads the Senate GOP\u2019s Steering Committee, holding weekly meetings with the conservative-oriented group as well as hosting a weekly lunch for the larger conference. Lee chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, one of several one-time rebels who received gavels in January. And Johnson \u2014 long been willing to be a squeaky wheel<\/a> \u2014 leads the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panel\u2019s investigative subcommittee in addition to having seats on the powerful Finance and Budget committees.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the Senate GOP conference has undergone a subtle transformation<\/a> in recent election cycles, inching toward the right as the most pragmatic Republican dealmakers are replaced by senators more closely aligned with the MAGA movement \u2014 giving Scott, Johnson and Lee a growing set of allies.<\/p>\n

Thune has been dealing with the hard-liners one step at a time. Gaining their approval for the recent funding package, for instance, required promising several amendment votes as well as a path forward for a pet Johnson priority \u2014 a bill that would exempt some federal employees from furloughs during government shutdowns.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has more patience than any three of the rest of us do,\u201d said Sen. Mike Rounds<\/a> (R-S.D.).<\/p>\n

Sen. Lisa Murkowski<\/a> (R-Alaska) added that Thune wants \u201cto the maximum degree possible to make sure that people in his conference are heard and respected\u201d \u2014 even if, she said, he \u201chas a lot of frogs that keep hopping around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about his message to the holdouts, Thune pitched the funding package as being in \u201ceverybody\u2019s best interest\u201d and better than the alternatives \u2014 a new shutdown, another short-term stopgap or a mammoth omnibus loathed by conservatives. Thune also helped facilitate a potential path toward enactment for Johnson\u2019s shutdown bill, connecting him with Speaker Mike Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you always have to keep the perspective in this job \u2026 that the most important vote isn\u2019t the last vote, it\u2019s the next vote,\u201d Thune said about his broader approach to leadership this past year.<\/p>\n

The conservative trio is looking ahead to the next fight, as well. Even after Scott cut a deal to advance the funding bill, he rekindled the earmarks fight, accusing Democrats in an X post<\/a> of \u201cpacking the latest appropriations package with taxpayer-funded earmarks\u201d and trying to \u201cundermine Pres. Trump\u2019s agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans, Scott said, must \u201cstand strong.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Senate Majority Leader John Thune rushed to advance a new funding package this month, he faced a familiar roadblock: a trio of conservatives from his conference\u2019s right flank. Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah banded together as they sought to advance key conservative priorities, including […]<\/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-17061","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\/17061","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=17061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}