--- title: Senate Republicans Pick Most Anti-MAGA Option as Next Leader description: Sen. John Thune of South Dakota is one of the most powerful people in Washington that folks outside D.C. have never heard of. canonical: https://time.com/7176326/trump-john-thune-senate/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-11-13T21:23:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-10T23:07:54.125Z article:section: Politics og:title: Senate Republicans Pick Most Anti-MAGA Option as Next Leader og:description: Sen. John Thune of South Dakota is one of the most powerful people in Washington that folks outside D.C. have never heard of. og:url: https://time.com/7176326/trump-john-thune-senate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f2ee86cdb0006c0/698a9c2d011682148798ccd4/GettyImages-1447233242.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Senators Meet For Their Weekly Policy Luncheons On Capitol Hill og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Senate Republicans Pick Most Anti-MAGA Option as Next Leader twitter:description: Sen. John Thune of South Dakota is one of the most powerful people in Washington that folks outside D.C. have never heard of. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f2ee86cdb0006c0/698a9c2d011682148798ccd4/GettyImages-1447233242.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # In Thune, Senate Republicans Picked The Most Anti-MAGA Leader In The Mix > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Nov 13, 2024 9:23 PM UTC  Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, left, and Sen. John Thune of South Dakota wait to speak to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 06, 2022 Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, left, and Sen. John Thune of South Dakota wait to speak to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 06, 2022 Kevin Dietsch—Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Nov 13, 2024 9:23 PM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ To outsiders, it looks a whole lot like Donald Trump has unrivaled control over the current Republican Party. He rode a remarkable and ahistoric wave back to re-election last week, one in which his allies expanded their majority in the House, and the Senate will return in January with Republicans holding the gavels. To the lay eye, Trump and his GOP lackeys are going to have free reign of Washington for at least the next two years. Democrats, it’s best to just cower and cede ground, right? But look a little closer, and the Republican monopoly is a little less certain. The House is destined to be a mess, given a narrow margin of majority and the parochial whims of some of the most right-wing members. Republicans on most measures are expected to need a handful of Democratic votes to get must-pass pieces of legislation across the finish line, and that is going to force at least some modicum of whittling of conservative wish lists. In the Senate, the surviving filibuster demands a 60-vote bar for most measures, again needing a handful of Democratic votes to lift the big pieces into law. Put simply: Trump was never going to get a blank check from his pals in Congress. That check got even less blank on Wednesday, when Senate Republicans [picked](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/13/john-thune-senate-republican-leader-00189305) their successor for Mitch McConnell, who is ending a record 18 years as party Leader. In his place, the GOP lawmakers [elevated](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-republicans-choose-new-leader-mitch-mcconnell-steps-rcna179670) Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, who spent the last few years as a watchful student of McConnell’s mastery of the Senate and its quirks. Similarly an institutionalist, Thune bested colleagues John Cornyn of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida for the job on the second ballot, and Cornyn moved that the decision be made unanimous. “We are excited to reclaim the majority and to get work with our colleagues in the House to enact President Trump’s agenda,” Thune said after the election. Careful words, sure. But total honesty? Not entirely. In picking Thune, Republicans rejected the MAGA-backed Scott for a by-the-books establishment figure who is as unassuming as he is efficient. Thune is one of the most powerful people in Washington that folks outside the Beltway have never heard of. He has a national fundraising network—$33 million [raised](https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/12/john-cornyn-senate-leader-texas/) for Republicans this cycle alone—and his alumni are peppered throughout the conservative ecosystem of Hill offices, committee staff, and K Street lobbying shops. To put it plainly: Thune positioned himself shrewdly to become McConnell’s logical heir. And that, precisely, is why President-elect Donald Trump must be [stewing](https://www.newsweek.com/john-thune-senate-leader-maga-backlash-1985337). Trump has made his contempt for business-as-usual Washington part of the deal. Trump famously loathed McConnell and his insistence that precedent and decorum rule the day, not haste or instinct. Thune has a little more appetite for gut instinct, but he is a gentleman who rightly matches the Senate’s staid reputation. After Trump dispatched a mob to attack the chamber on Jan. 6, 2021, Thune [broke](https://time.com/7176264/republican-john-thune-senate-majority-leader/) with him in a big way that day. Four years earlier, Thune was among the Republicans who called on Trump to [stand down](https://www.newsweek.com/john-thune-donald-trump-agenda-plans-1985303) in the wake of the _Access Hollywood_ [crisis](https://time.com/magazine/us/4529382/october-24th-2016-vol-188-no-16-17-u-s/) that ultimately proved irrelevant to the race. While Trump was President, Thune was an ardent critic of Trump’s [obsession](https://www.axios.com/2024/11/13/john-thune-senate-republican-leader) with tariffs. Though this involved a secret ballot unlike Senate votes, the fact that the chamber’s Republicans sided with Thune is an early—and maybe premature—warning that they mightn’t be the [rubber stamp](https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/11/donald-trump-doesnt-need-recess-appointments/) that Trump Republicans had hoped to find. Thune [nodded](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/10/us/politics/republican-senators-trump-scott-thune-cornyn.html) along politely when Trump [demanded](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/12/trump-recess-appointments-how-they-work/) the chamber [give](https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/10/politics/trump-senate-recess-appointments-gop-leader/index.html) him recess appointments for his Cabinet should confirmation hearings drag on too long, but Thune carefully [added](https://www.wsj.com/opinion/why-trump-needs-recess-appointments-senate-too-slow-confirming-officials-dadff49b) that his legions would work on speedy vetting—not unilateral [green lights](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/11/trump-senate-recess-appointments-powergrab/) for his picks. That caution and calibration is why Trump has long harbored suspicion against Thune. So deep was the antipathy, Trump actively sought Kristi Noem as a primary challenger against Thune in 2022, although she ran for re-election instead and is now on deck to be his nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Thune is a normie in the purest sense, and his colleagues decided they trusted him over Cornyn—another mainstream conservative—or burn-it-down billionaire Scott to dictate what measures get moved to the Senate floor and which get buried in the bottom of a desk drawer. Thune’s win is also a [signal](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/11/us/politics/trump-senate-thune-scott.html) that Trump and his inner-circle—[specifically](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/11/13/us/trump-news/6c84cfb0-690b-532a-b868-a313f824f065?smid=url-share) billionaire Elon Musk—will not have total control over D.C. Musk had openly supported Scott for the gig, and many in Trump’s orbit had re-upped stories about how Thune was perceived as a disloyal adherent to the MAGA movement. But on the secret ballot, Thune prevailed as the level-headed, plain-spoken grandfather who could keep the intentionally inert Senate steady. With Trump likely to have his sycophants in the House ready to give his impulses a go-ahead order, and the courts remade to his—and McConnell’s—liking, the Senate may be the fail-safe in government. The dam may yet break, but at least for now it holds. It may be the best those in Washington fearful of Trump 2.0 can hope for in the next few years. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7176326/trump-john-thune-senate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7176326/trump-john-thune-senate/"},"headline":"In Thune, Senate Republicans Picked The Most Anti-MAGA Leader In The Mix","datePublished":"2024-11-13T21:23:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-10T23:07:54.125Z","description":"John Thune was already one of the most powerful people in Washington","url":"https://time.com/7176326/trump-john-thune-senate/","keywords":["The D.C. 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