A recent Punchbowl survey of senior Capitol Hill staffers found that a majority of Hill aides across both parties named Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.) as the most effective congressional leader. Not Speaker Mike Johnson, who keeps pulling rabbits out of hats, not Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.), and certainly not Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), who polled at three percent.
This finding may have surprised some online trolls of both parties who call Leader Thune every name in the book whenever he posts a holiday photo with his grandkids. These criticisms, however much they are lacking a basis in reality, are the unfortunate costs of leadership.
But here’s the truth. By any measure, John Thune is the most effective Senate Majority Leaders in a generation, and he has delivered consequential conservative wins under extraordinarily tough circumstances. Just look at the scoreboard.
In his first six months alone, Thune’s Senate GOP conference confirmed 21 of President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees at the fastest pace in more than 20 years, confirmed ten ambassadors in Trump’s first 100 days — the most since the Reagan administration — and ran the longest continuous Senate work period in 15 years. Senate Democrats put up unprecedented opposition, refusing to confirm a single Trump nominee, no matter how obscure, by voice vote. And yet Thune still confirmed President Trump’s cabinet at a record pace.
And to get this done, Thune skillfully delivered a vote that revised the Senate rules to overcome the Democrats’ obstructionism. This win may sound easy to the outside — after all, we have 53 Republican senators. But with at least six of those 53 being skeptical of any rule changes, this was a monumental achievement.
Under Thune’s leadership, the Senate has taken more votes than any time in the past 40 years. Then came the Working Families Tax Cut, a permanent extension of the 2017 tax cuts, preventing a $4 trillion tax hike on American families, paired with $1.5 trillion in real savings and the first genuine entitlement reform in a generation. The largest tax relief in American history, which means waiters and waitresses no longer pay taxes on tips. And this came despite the opposition from three Republican senators.
When Senate Democrats forced the longest government shutdown in U.S. history — 43 days — Thune did not flinch. He brought continuing resolutions to the floor 13 times. Democrats voted no 13 times. When the normally even-tempered South Dakotan finally erupted on the Senate floor in late October, glaring across the aisle and thundering “thirteen times,” it was a moment that delivered the message that Republicans were trying to fund the government, and Democrats were holding it hostage. Finally, Schumer gave in to Thune and the shutdown ended on Republican terms.
We should also address the criticism that Thune is failing to deliver by refusing to use a “talking filibuster” to pass the SAVE America Act. But this is a misunderstanding of the Senate. The “talking filibuster” essentially means that the Senate should keep debating a bill until the other side changes its mind. It is not a shortcut to get around 60 votes. If it were, Senate Democrats would have used the “talking filibuster” themselves in 2021 and 2022, when they controlled the chamber and had a long list of priorities they could not pass. They did not, because the Senate does not work that way.
What Thune’s critics are actually demanding is that the Senate debate the SAVE Act indefinitely until Senate Democrats spontaneously decide to support voter ID, something that will never happen. The Senate could debate the SAVE America Act until 2027 and the Democrats will not change their minds on voter ID. What would happen is during that time, no nominees get confirmed, no other priorities advance, and Democrats would be spared the politically painful immigration votes Thune has been forcing them to take.
Should Democrats somehow flip the Senate this year, you can rest assured: under Senate Majority Leader Schumer, there would still be no SAVE America Act, and President Trump’s final two years would be squandered.
What’s remarkable is that Thune has had all this legislative success while still retaining his reputation as someone who is kind and decent. Our sources in the Senate tell us that even Thune’s critics acknowledge that he treats everyone fairly; he treats his colleagues as equals, and his word is his bond.
The job of Majority Leader is to deliver. By every measure that counts, confirmations, legislation, holding the line in a crisis, keeping a fractious conference united, and earning the grudging respect of the opposition’s own staff, Leader Thune has delivered substantial conservative policy wins. And the country is safer and more prosperous because of him.