{"id":20252,"date":"2026-03-19T14:31:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T14:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/thune-tim-scott-endorse-hern-for-open-oklahoma-senate-seat\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T14:31:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T14:31:43","slug":"thune-tim-scott-endorse-hern-for-open-oklahoma-senate-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/thune-tim-scott-endorse-hern-for-open-oklahoma-senate-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Thune, Tim Scott endorse Hern for open Oklahoma Senate seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Senate Majority Leader <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/51242\" data-person-id=\"51242\">John Thune<\/a> and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/151800\" data-person-id=\"151800\">Tim Scott<\/a> (R-S.C.) endorsed Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/306850\" data-person-id=\"306850\">Kevin Hern<\/a>\u2019s bid for the open Senate seat in Oklahoma to replace Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/198817\" data-person-id=\"198817\">Markwayne Mullin<\/a> on Thursday, as Republicans look to avoid a messy primary in the red-leaning state.<\/p>\n<p>Thune called Hern a \u201cproven conservative leader\u201d and supporter of their shared Republican agenda. \u201cHe will be a great asset in the Senate and has my full support and endorsement,\u201d Thune said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The seat is open after President Donald Trump tapped Mullin to replace Kristi Noem as Department of Homeland Security secretary.<\/p>\n<p>Trump had previously endorsed Hern for the Senate seat in a post on Truth Social.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA true friend of MAGA, Kevin is now running for the United States Senate, where I know he will continue to do an incredible job,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/116224634088762061\" target=\"_blank\">Trump wrote<\/a>. \u201cKevin is strongly supported by the fiercest MAGA Warriors in Oklahoma, and the most Highly Respected Leaders in the United States Senate!\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Hern is running in November for a full term, but Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt will need to appoint a successor in the coming weeks to serve until then. By state law, the person who is appointed to fill the seat temporarily cannot run for the full term.<\/p>\n<p>Other major Republican figures in the state \u2014 including Stitt and Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/241090\" data-person-id=\"241090\">Stephanie Bice<\/a> \u2014 have said they would not run for the Senate seat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) endorsed Rep. Kevin Hern\u2019s bid for the open Senate seat in Oklahoma to replace Sen. Markwayne Mullin on Thursday, as Republicans look to avoid a messy primary in the red-leaning state. Thune called Hern a \u201cproven conservative leader\u201d and supporter of [&hellip;]<\/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-20252","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\/20252","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=20252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}