South Dakota U.S. Sen. John Thune elected as next majority leader ...

WASHINGTON — Republicans on Wednesday elected their leadership teams for the next Congress, opting for a new slate in the Senate while reelecting many of the same lawmakers in the House.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune will become that chamber’s next majority leader, marking the first time since 2007 that Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell hasn’t held the top GOP slot after choosing to retire from leadership.

Thune defeated Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Florida Sen. Rick Scott during the closed-door, secret ballot. 

“We’re excited to reclaim the majority and to get to work with our colleagues in the House to enact President (Donald) Trump’s agenda,” Thune said during a press conference. “We have a mandate from the American people — a mandate, not only to clean up the mess left by the Biden-Harris-Schumer agenda, but also to deliver on President Trump’s priorities.”

Thune said border security, deregulation and energy policy would be among the top policy areas GOP senators pursue once the new Congress begins.

He also pledged to “be a leader who serves the entire Republican Conference” and noted the GOP has “an ambitious agenda that will take each and every Republican working together” to achieve.

More new GOP leaders

Senate Republicans also elected a new slate of new leaders during the Wednesday elections, all of whom will take on their new roles in January.

Wyoming’s John Barrasso, who ran unopposed, will become the assistant majority leader next Congress, holding the No. 2 slot in the Senate that was previously referred to as the whip.

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton defeated Iowa’s Joni Ernst for the No. 3 leadership post of conference chair.

West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito was elected as the Republican Policy Committee chair, Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford received his colleagues’ backing for conference vice chair, and South Carolina’s Tim Scott will become the next chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Trump made demands of the next Senate Republican leader ahead of the election, writing on social media that whoever is chosen should recess the chamber early next year so he can appoint whoever he wants without having to go through the confirmation process.

Thune said during the press conference Wednesday the Senate would work quickly to vet and confirm Trump’s nominees, but didn’t fully commit to recessing the chamber for the 10 days minimum that’s required for recess appointments.

“What we’re going to do is make sure that we are processing his nominees in a way that gets them into those positions, so they can implement his agenda,” Thune said. “How that happens remains to be seen.”

“Obviously, we want to make sure our committees have confirmation hearings, like they typically do, and that these nominees are reported out to the floor,” Thune added. “But I’ve said this, and I mean it, that we expect a level of cooperation from the Democrats; to work with us to get these folks installed. And obviously we’re going to look at, explore all options to make sure that they get moved and get moved quickly.”

Building trust

South Dakota GOP Sen. Mike Rounds said after the election that Thune was able to secure the votes needed to win after spending years building trust.

“For a lot of people, it was that sense of comfort with John Thune of being able to represent what we believe — the fact that they knew that they could go to him and talk to him privately, and that he was not going to be doing this as ‘I’m going to tell the conference what to do,’ but rather, ‘We’re going to, as a conference, move forward, and we will find consensus as we do it, because we need everybody to support the vast majority of the things that we’re going to get done,’” he said.

Rounds, an early backer of Thune in the race, said his fellow South Dakota senator voted in support of Trump’s policies “more than 90% of the time when he was in office.”

South Dakota veteran lawmaker

Thune, 63, was elected to the Senate in 2004 after spending six years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

He currently holds the title of Republican whip, but has done stints as Republican Conference vice chair, Republican Policy Committee chair, Republican Conference chair and chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Thune has given dozens of floor speeches and press conferences during his time in the Senate, but highlighted his support for bipartisanship in April 2021, applauding Democrats, who were in the majority, for working with the GOP on legislation.

“The Senate was designed to promote moderation and consensus. It was intended to be a check on the more partisan — or as the founders would put it, factious — House of Representatives,” Thune said during a floor speech. “The Senate fulfills its constitutional role best when it engages in serious, bipartisan consideration and negotiation and ensures that members of both parties are heard.”

He then pressed lawmakers from both parties to adopt that framework to negotiate infrastructure legislation in the months ahead.

Control of Congress and White House

Thune will have to break from those beliefs a bit during the next two years as Republicans use what is expected to be unified control of government to move through as much conservative legislation as they can via the complex budget reconciliation process.

That legislative pathway will allow Republicans to get around the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster, which typically forces bipartisanship on major legislation.

The GOP used the process to try to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, during the first Trump administration, but were unsuccessful. Republicans were able to use it to enact the 2017 tax law.

Democrats used budget reconciliation to approve a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package and their signature climate change, health care and tax package called the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, during the first two years of President Joe Biden’s term.

Thune expressed frustration during his April 2021 floor speech that Democrats had used the process to avoid negotiating with Republicans senators on those two laws.

“Our Founders established a democratic republic instead of a pure democracy because they wanted to balance majority rule with protection for minority rights. They knew that majorities could be tyrants, so they wove protection for minority rights into our system of government,” Thune said at the time. “The Senate was one of those protections. That is why we should be preserving rules like the filibuster, which ensures that the minority party and the many Americans it represents have a voice in legislation.”

House Republican leaders

In the House, Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana received his party’s nomination for speaker for a second time, but he’ll need to secure the votes to hold the gavel in the 119th Congress during a floor vote in January.

Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise was reelected as House Republican leader and Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer secured the votes needed to continue as the whip. Both ran unopposed.

Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain will become the Republican Conference chairwoman, succeeding New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, whom President-elect Donald Trump has said he’ll nominate as ambassador to the United Nations. McClain defeated Florida Rep. Kat Cammack for the role.

Indiana Rep. Erin Houchin will become conference secretary. Utah Rep. Blake Moore will become conference vice chairman. Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern will become policy chairman. And North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson will remain chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee for another two years.

Johnson said during a press conference after the closed-door elections that the GOP was ready to begin passing legislation as soon as the new Congress begins on Jan. 3.

“I know you’re all tired of hearing my football metaphors, but we have a very well-designed playbook. We will begin to execute those plays with precision on day one,”

Emmer signaled the potential speed bumps ahead during that press conference, referencing some challenges the GOP has faced with small margins in the House during the last two years.

“As the 118th Congress proved, it may not always be smooth sailing, and we may have some disagreements along the way, but I’ve always been a firm believer that there’s more that unites us than divides us,” Emmer said. “So long as we work together as a team, I have no doubt we will seize the opportunity in front of us.”

Shauneen Miranda contributed to this report.

Last updated 7:12 p.m., Nov. 13, 2024

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