Thune looks to dodge Trump bombshell in GOP leadership race

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) is facing a barrage of opposition from Trump allies ranging from Tucker Carlson to Sean Hannity that could upend the race to replace retiring Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).

Senate insiders say Thune is under pressure to win a three-way race with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on the first round of voting to avoid the possibility that a majority of the GOP conference might coalesce behind one of his two rivals once the race narrows down to two men.

The biggest wildcard in the race is President-elect Trump, say Senate GOP sources, who has yet to make an endorsement.

If he comes out strongly against Thune before the vote, he could decisively tip the race.

But Thune’s allies, including Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Steve Daines (R-Mont.) have urged Trump, either publicly or privately, to stay out of the race.

Prominent MAGA voices have weighed in on behalf of Scott, implicitly painting Thune and Cornyn — two longtime McConnell allies — as members of the long-reigning GOP establishment.

If Trump remains on the sidelines, Thune has a good chance of holding on to be elected the next Senate majority leader.

Thune on Tuesday evening said he doesn’t know what Trump would do in the final hours of the race.

Asked if Trump would heed his advice to stay out of the race, Thune replied: “Don’t know.”

“We’re just keeping our heads down, doing the work and leaving it in the hands of the voters,” he said.

Trump, who is meeting President Biden at the White House on Wednesday, is scheduled to meet with House Republicans on Capitol Hill in the morning, stirring speculation that he may drop into the Senate GOP conference meeting shortly before it elects its new slate of leaders.

Senate Republican Conference Chair John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who is hosting the meeting, acknowledged Trump will be “in town” but didn’t know whether he would drop in to chat with senators before their elections.

“President Trump will be in town and I haven’t seen his schedule,” he said.

Thune’s camp as of Tuesday evening had not yet claimed commitments from a majority of the Senate GOP conference, which means the race may be decided after a second round of voting.

Some of Trump’s most prominent supporters, including Carlson, Hannity, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have endorsed Scott, but Senate GOP sources say the Florida senator — who garnered only 10 votes when he last ran for GOP leader in 2022 — is likely to be eliminated after the first ballot.

If Scott is out of the race, the big question is where do his supporters go: Do they gravitate to Thune or to Cornyn?

Cornyn’s allies are hoping the surge of MAGA support for Scott will migrate to the Texas senator, arguing he has a better relationship with Trump than Thune does.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” he told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Asked the likelihood of Trump intervening at the last moment to influence the outcome, Cornyn said time is fast running out for him to have an impact.

“I think it’s up to him, but there’s not much time between now and the vote, and he’s chose not to at this point. I don’t know whether he will or not,” he told reporters.

Cornyn declined to say whether he asked Trump for a Trump endorsement.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said it’s tough to say how much impact the late intervention of Trump or his MAGA allies might have on the race.

“I really don’t know because it’s a secret ballot. I don’t know how that plays out,” she said.

She noted Trump has “a strong following that he can activate.”

One of those allies, Carlson, the former Fox News host, said McConnell was trying to “engineer a coup” by holding the leadership election only a week after Election Day, giving Trump and his allies little time to weigh in on the race.

“What the hell is going on in the US Senate?” Carlson posted on the social platform X, complaining about the schedule.

“Two of the three candidates hate Trump and what he ran on,” he added, taking a shot at Thune and Cornyn.

In recent years, however, Senate GOP leadership elections typically take place the week after Election Day.

Thune’s allies argue he has a more conservative voting record than Cornyn and could pick up additional conservative votes on a second round of voting.

Thune, notably, voted against a bipartisan bill that Cornyn helped negotiate to address gun violence after a mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022. The National Rifle Association opposed the bill for placing “unnecessary burdens” on “law-abiding gun owners.”

Thune also voted in 2022 against the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which Cornyn supported, and which Democrats hailed as a major achievement of the Biden administration.

Trump slammed the act during a recent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, calling it “so bad” because it provided billions of dollars in subsidies to “rich companies.”

But Trump has a history of clashing with Thune, notably when Thune whipped GOP senators to oppose objections to the slates of electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania that supported President Biden after the 2020 election.

Thune declared that efforts to block the certification of Biden’s election would “go down like a shot dog,” which elicited a furious response from Trump. Trump fumed that Thune was “Mitch’s boy,” referring to McConnell and warned “he will be primaried in 2022, political career over!!!”

Instead, Thune easily won reelection two years ago and tried to patch up his relationship with Trump by visiting him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., in March.