Senate Republicans have re-elected John Thune as their leader, keeping the South Dakota senator at the head of the party’s Senate conference as it prepares to hand control of the chamber to Democrats in January.
The vote
After hours of closed-door discussions on Tuesday, Senate Republicans re-elected Thune, who will become minority leader when the new Congress convenes in January. The leadership decisions came on a day when the House also chose its new leader, electing Jim Jordan as House Republican leader by 106 votes to 73 over Steve Scalise.
Thune had served as Senate Majority Leader in the outgoing Congress. His re-election was confirmed in the same round of leadership votes that reshaped both parties’ hierarchies after last week’s midterm elections, in which Democrats swept to victory and won sizable majorities in both the House and Senate.
A steady hand in opposition
Thune, a veteran of Senate leadership who has built a reputation as a pragmatic operator, will now lead a Republican conference that has lost its majority and must regroup around a new strategy for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term. Democrats will hold at least 54 Senate seats when the 120th Congress convenes in January, with two races — Mississippi and Alaska — still uncalled. The BBC reported the Democratic Senate majority-elect stood at 55 seats with those two races unresolved, so the final margin depends on counts still being completed in Jackson and Juneau. Unlike the House contest, no challenger to Thune was reported in the day’s coverage, and the Senate vote was settled in a single round of closed-door discussions.
The other side’s fight
While Republicans settled their leadership quickly, Democrats face a messier contest. Senator Bernie Sanders said on Tuesday he will not support Chuck Schumer’s bid to remain the top Democrat in the Senate, and Senator Elissa Slotkin also declined to back him. Senate Democrats are expected to hold their leadership elections in December.
Related reading: Congress Lame-Duck Day Two: Leadership Vote December 11
