Well, so much for the guy whose name is on the blame line taking the heat for a disaster.
Yes, you guessed it; Senate Republicans have confirmed Sen. John Thune (R-SD) to be Senate Minority Leader for the 120th Congress. Yes, really.
There was neither an exodus nor a mass housecleaning in the Senate GOP leadership, despite frustration and rumblings of discontent among some lawmakers reeling from last week’s devastating midterm losses.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., secured another term as the top Republican behind the closed doors of the Old Senate Chamber, where lawmakers charted their course for their few remaining weeks in power and beyond.
His victory comes after a cohort of Republicans led by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., demanded that the Senate GOP pause its scheduled leadership elections to debrief on their stunning midterm losses.
After taking the roundhouse punch that the Republican Party took last week, one would think a shakeup would be in order. But, we voted for them, and they voted for John Thune. There weren't many others who wanted the job, and granted, there are some difficult times ahead for Senate Republicans; barring some disaster, the map doesn't favor the GOP retaking the Senate until, perhaps, 2030 or even 2032.
But, it seems, there was no alternative. So, back to the same old well.
The night before, Thune was adamant that he’d still run but was unsure of the outcome.
"That's the hope," Thune said when asked if he had the Senate GOP’s support. "You never know right until they vote."
Before the vote, Johnson and a handful of others believed there should be a shakeup in leadership, but didn’t offer an alternative to Thune.
"After the stunning defeat, you just can't continue on business as usual," Johnson said. "I mean, that kind of defeat demands change."
This will probably cause some discomfiture, not only with Senate Republicans, but with Republican Party members who are understandably frustrated with the shellacking the party took in last week's midterms. We should bear in mind, of course, that this isn't the first time this has happened; midterm shakeups have happened as far back as President Truman's first midterm election in 1946, when Senate Democrats lost 12 Senate seats to Republicans. And many of us remember the beating President Clinton's Democrats took in 1994 when Democrats lost eight Senate seats to the Republicans, and then in 2010, when President Obama's Democrats lost six Senate seats to the GOP.
Still, the 2026 midterms are looking to cost the Senate Republicans seven to nine seats, and while that's not a record, it sure isn't good.
So, for now, it's Minority Leader Thune, and we'll see how well he does. Success is the best redemption, and if he can manage to herd this now-admittedly smaller herd of cats to a few wins — or even just hold off disaster — he may end up framing well as the top man in the new minority.
Even so, for now, there will be a lot of Republicans that will look on this with displeasure, and Sen. Thune would be well advised to use this rump session between now and January 3 to get as much of the Republican agenda passed and on its way to President Trump's desk that he can manage, with emphasis on the SAVE America Act.
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