{"id":17517,"date":"2026-01-10T15:16:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T15:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/how-john-thune-is-trying-to-save-the-senate-for-republicans\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T15:16:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T15:16:57","slug":"how-john-thune-is-trying-to-save-the-senate-for-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/how-john-thune-is-trying-to-save-the-senate-for-republicans\/","title":{"rendered":"How John Thune is trying to save the Senate for Republicans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

McALLEN, Texas \u2014 John Thune is ramping up his sales pitch as he tries to turn the GOP\u2019s attention toward November and keeping the Senate majority.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s message \u2014 not to mention what he called the midterm \u201cheadwinds\u201d facing any party in power.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 even as voters seem indifferent about the GOP\u2019s \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d<\/a> and President Donald Trump struggles in sticking to a kitchen-table script.<\/p>\n

Having Republicans back home touting the party line, Thune said, will help.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, our members were in many cases, for obvious reasons, in Washington, trying to get the job done,\u201d Thune said in an interview. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also acknowledged that Democrats leapt out of the gate<\/a> last year in hammering the GOP megabill even before it was finished, adding that \u201cthey have the advantage of being the opposition party.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Republicans started out the 2026 cycle as odds-on favorites for keeping control<\/a> of the Senate. They still have an edge, according to most forecasters. But Democrats have made a dent in the GOP\u2019s advantage by securing big-name recruits in key races as Republicans face some heated and costly intraparty primaries.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 the state attorney general and one of Cornyn\u2019s primary opponents \u2014 accused Cornyn of trying to \u201crewrite history\u201d with the border trip and predicted that his career will end in \u201cnational embarrassment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thune\u2019s effort to use his bully pulpit to focus on the party\u2019s legislative accomplishments comes as Republicans continue to fret that they haven\u2019t done enough<\/a> to sell the megabill. Many wonder in hindsight whether their decision to pack so many priorities together into a single piece of legislation \u2014 a decision driven in part by the party-line budget reconciliation process \u2014 was ill-conceived.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about that,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecure Border, More Money, New Opportunities,\u201d read a sign on the podium summarizing the legislation.<\/p>\n

But an overstuffed domestic policy bill is far from the top concern for Republicans who remain nervous about addressing Americans\u2019 anxieties about the steeply rising cost of living.<\/p>\n

While many GOP leaders spent the final months of 2025 vowing to focus on affordability issues \u2014 and Thune vowed Friday Republicans would in 2026 \u2014 the opening days of the year have been focused abroad after Trump ousted Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. The military action sparked a fiery debate in Congress about presidential war powers that threaten to blot out other matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly going to consume the news cycle for a while,\u201d said Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota in an interview in the Capitol this week.<\/p>\n

It certainly has preoccupied Trump, who lashed out at five Senate Republicans<\/a> 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 \u201cshould never be elected to office again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thune said he had a \u201cvery spirited\u201d conversation<\/a> with Trump before he delivered the attacks and acknowledged his frustrations. But Thune said he was focused on keeping Republicans \u201cunited as much as possible and work[ing] with the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

The two are viewed as having a good personal relationship, with Trump publicly praising Thune throughout 2025 \u2014 a transformation from just a few years before<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t have their differences. Thune, with the backing of his conference, has rebuffed Trump\u2019s demands to nix the filibuster and other Senate norms<\/a> that preserve minority power. They have also clashed on policy \u2014 most conspicuously on the president\u2019s aggressive use of tariffs which have negatively impacted farmers in Thune\u2019s home state.<\/p>\n

Thune acknowledged they sometimes don\u2019t see eye-to-eye but added he views his job as needing to \u201cprotect the institution \u2026 maintain it as the founders intended as a check and balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thune reiterated Friday that he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

That said, he added, \u201cthere are times, yes, where you have to push back\u201d \u2014 pointing back to the conversation on the war powers resolution, which Thune opposed.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Beyond dealing with Trump\u2019s angry outburst, Thune is trying to keep the party \u2014 and the president \u2014 singing from the same hymnal heading into November.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, 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,\u201d Thune said of Trump. \u201cAs we get out there and talk about it, I think it\u2019ll start to change the perceptions and the views in the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Gangitano contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McALLEN, Texas \u2014 John Thune is ramping up his sales pitch as he tries to turn the GOP\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17517","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=17517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}