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\n

LE SUEUR, Minnesota \u2014 The word on John Thune\u2019s<\/a> mind these days is \u201cresources.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Senate majority leader\u2019s recollection, it was a dominant topic in his recent conversations with President Donald Trump, including at a recent visit to the White House, not to mention in his frequent conversation with Trump\u2019s political team \u2014 and in an exclusive conversation with Blue Light News Monday during a Midwest campaign swing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the president is sincerely interested in trying to do whatever he can to help the team,\u201d Thune said about his midterm conversations with the president and his advisers. \u201cI also share with him, too, the importance of just the resources in some of these states. You know, some of the states have gotten very expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Trump focuses on turning out his own voters \u2014 a message the president is taking into his own hands in a series of preelection rallies \u2014 Thune is making sure he also has money on his mind: \u201cI \u2026 just conveyed to him the importance of ensuring that our candidates are well-resourced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thune\u2019s focus underscores the emerging question defining the 2026 midterms: Is there enough Republican money, and can it be spent fast enough, to counter surging Democratic campaigns and a lackluster national environment for the GOP?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a narrative both sides largely agree on \u2014 Thune\u2019s Democratic counterpart, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a>, said as much last week<\/a> \u2014 even as each leader insists his side will prevail.<\/p>\n

Thune declined Monday to put odds on the GOP\u2019s chances of keeping control of the Senate but said repeatedly, \u201cI think we can keep the majority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all of these races are margin of error, at least the ones that we have to win,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd historically, at least if you look at polls, we tend to outperform them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike Schumer, who is keeping a low profile in October and focusing on private fundraising, Thune is barnstorming the country \u2014 visiting a mix of deep-red and battleground states<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Minnesota was not expected to be in play for Republicans when Thune took over as leader nearly two years ago. Democratic incumbent Sen. Tina Smith<\/a> had a clear path to reelection in a state that has not elected a GOP senator since 2002.<\/p>\n

But Smith chose to retire, and Democrats nominated an unabashed progressive, Peggy Flanagan, who is now facing Michele Tafoya, the well-known former sportscaster, in November. Recent public polls have shown the race in single digits, and Thune was not shy about including it alongside Michigan and New Hampshire as a GOP pickup opportunity.<\/p>\n

Mentioning Minnesota is one thing, but investing in it is another, and national groups affiliated with Thune have not made major investments in the state so far. Standing next to Thune at a news conference Monday, Tafoya made the case for that to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had three or four straight weeks of really solid polls,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is one worth investing in. We are right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

But they both kept things vague when asked about Washington Republicans\u2019 potential commitment to the race \u2014 including how much cash would be necessary to overcome 24 years of futility and a bad political environment.<\/p>\n

Both Thune and Tafoya used the same words to answer that question: \u201cWe haven’t had that conversation.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Thune put the party\u2019s spending decisions into a larger context: \u201cIf the president is looking for places where he can make a difference \u2026 we\u2019re in touch on a daily basis with his team and hopefully they will \u2014 as they already have \u2014 continue to help us leverage the resources that we\u2019ve got to bring to bear to get the best possible impact and outcome in these key states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thune pointed to Minnesota as one possible state where Trump could choose to deploy his $400-million-plus war chest<\/a>. But the tiny national footprint in the Gopher State pales next to the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent in Texas \u2014 an expensive state Thune and Trump continue to discuss as Republicans struggle to drag Senate nominee Ken Paxton over the finish line.<\/p>\n

Asked about the super-sized investments there, Thune declined to connect the massive spending on Paxton to tough decisions elsewhere on the map. \u201cDedicated donors\u201d focused on Texas, he said, have meant GOP groups haven\u2019t yet had to siphon funding away from other key states.<\/p>\n

But the tough decisions are nevertheless underway. As Republican candidates play defense in a growing list of red states, the Thune-aligned Senate Leadership Fund recently pulled back spending<\/a> in North Carolina \u2014 essentially surrendering a GOP-held seat to Democrats \u2014 while increasing its spending in Kansas.<\/p>\n

Thune referred to the decision as a \u201cpause\u201d in financial support for nominee Michael Whatley.<\/p>\n

The reasons for the political headwinds were on display Monday at an agriculture-focused roundtable, where Thune and Tafoya heard about the impact of Trump\u2019s trade war with Canada, the president\u2019s decision to import foreign beef and the high diesel prices that followed his decision to attack Iran.<\/p>\n

Thune, a South Dakotan fluent in farm-state politics, touted Tafoya as someone who could help address some of those concerns by being a \u201cgreat voice on issues like agriculture\u201d if she makes it to the Senate.<\/p>\n

His broader message in the interview, however, was to cast the midterm election as \u201cchoice\u201d between the two parties rather than a referendum on the Iran war and the ensuing spike in energy prices. Democrats want \u201cmore spending,\u201d \u201chigher costs,\u201d and \u201copen borders,\u201d he said, while Republicans had put \u201cmore money in your pockets\u201d with their 2025 tax bill.<\/p>\n

“Iran is temporary,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be behind us. Gas prices are going to come down, so who do you want to invest in for the next two years, four years?\u201d<\/p>\n

The midterm results carry personal stakes for Thune, who is expected to run for leader again in internal Senate GOP elections that are expected to take place just days after the midterms, regardless of the outcome.<\/p>\n

Thune remains well-liked within the Senate GOP conference, and no other senator has raised his or her hand to run against him. But some conservatives, in and out of the Senate, have privately questioned whether Trump would publicly turn on Thune if Republicans lose their majority.<\/p>\n

Asked about that possibility, Thune said, \u201cI can\u2019t control that.\u201d He added that \u201cthe Republican conference\u201d would ultimately make the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the president does or doesn\u2019t do \u2026 you just move forward and let the chips fall where they may,\u201d he said. \u201cAll I can say is, I\u2019m with him and his team to do the things I think are good for the future of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Blue Light News pointed out Trump defended Thune at last month\u2019s GOP midterm convention after some in the crowd booed the mention of his name, he laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I know,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the little things, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LE SUEUR, Minnesota \u2014 The word on John Thune\u2019s mind these days is \u201cresources.\u201d In the Senate majority leader\u2019s recollection, it was a dominant topic in his recent conversations with President Donald Trump, including at a recent visit to the White House, not to mention in his frequent conversation with Trump\u2019s political team \u2014 and […]<\/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-27421","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\/27421","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=27421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}