Senate’s No. 2 GOP Leader John Thune to Seek Re-Election

(Bloomberg) -- Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican leader in the chamber and a potential successor to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said he will seek a fourth term.

“South Dakota deserves a strong and effective senator who can deliver the results they expect,” Thune said in a Twitter post on Saturday. “I am uniquely positioned to get that job done, and I look forward to earning the support of all South Dakotans in the 2022 election for U.S. Senate.”

Thune’s decision, after months of uncertainty, is a boon for Republicans preparing for 2022 midterm elections in which President Joe Biden’s party is fighting to keep its narrow control of the Senate. Republicans have open seats to defend in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Alabama and Missouri and Thune’s decision avoids adding to the list of incumbent retirements.

As the Senate GOP’s vote-counting whip and McConnell’s top lieutenant, Thune has helped round up Republican votes against many of President Joe Biden’s policy priorities including his nearly $2 trillion economic package. He also mustered votes for the 2017 Republican tax cut package and other priorities under former President Donald Trump. 

But he ran afoul of Trump by not joining an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election by not certifying Electoral College votes. He called such efforts “madness” and said that any drive to challenge the presidential election in the Senate “would go down like a shot dog.” 

Trump attacked Thune and urged Republicans in the Mount Rushmore state to find a primary challenger to the three-term incumbent.

Thune has kept the support of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who has declined to run against him. So far, three GOP challengers have filed to run against Thune: former Oglala Lakota County GOP Chair Bruce Whalen, Box Elder resident Patrick Schubert and Mark Mowry, a Black Hills man who has said he participated in demonstrations in Washington on Jan. 6 challenging the validity of President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory but didn’t join the mob rioting at the Capitol. The seat Thune holds is rated “solidly Republican” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Democrats control the Senate, now split 50-50 between the two political parties, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to cast tie-breaking votes. While Republicans have to defend 20 seats in 2022 and Democrats only have 14 seats on the ballot, the GOP is hoping historical trends will help them since the party that holds the White House typically loses seats in midterm elections.

Thune had $14.8 million cash on hand to spend in his 2022 re-election campaign by the end of the third quarter. He won his 2016 Senate re-election with 72% of the vote and was unopposed in 2010.

Thune first served in the U.S. House from 1986-2002. He first won his Senate seat in 2004, after challenging Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and beating him by 1 percentage point. It was the first time a Senate party leader was defeated when running for re-election in more than 50 years.

Thune serves on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which he once chaired, and also is on Agriculture Committee as well as the Finance Committee that handles tax and trade issues. 

On the Commerce panel, Thune has been a critic of Facebook and has voiced some interest in regulating the social media giant, particularly after a whistle-blower and former company employee raised concern about the Facebook’s algorithms, its role in spreading disinformation and what she alleged is a culture that puts profits above consumers.

In 2019, Thune replaced Senator John Cornyn of Texas as the No. 2 Republican leader, after Cornyn reached the term limit for the job.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.