John Thune, the Republican senator for South Dakota, will develop into the brand new Senate majority chief after profitable an inner celebration poll on Wednesday for the place left vacant by the upcoming retirement of Mitch McConnell.
His elevation – following the second spherical of a vote amongst GOP senators that was held underneath secret poll situations – propels him right into a key position in advancing Donald Trump’s agenda when the president-elect returns to the White Home in January.
Thune, presently the Republican whip within the Senate, beat John Cornyn of Texas 25-24 on a second poll after an preliminary spherical that noticed the elimination of the Florida senator, Rick Scott, a favorite of Maga conservatives.
The South Dakota senator received the backing of 25 of his GOP colleagues to Conryn’s 15 within the preliminary poll, with Scott getting 13 votes.
“I’m extraordinarily honoured to have earned the help of my colleagues to steer the Senate within the 119th Congress, and I’m past happy with the work we now have executed to safe our majority and the White Home,” Thune stated in a press release after the vote. “This Republican crew is united behind President Trump’s agenda, and our work begins in the present day.”
Thune has beforehand been a critic of Trump and referred to as his position within the 6 January 2021 assault on the US Capitol “inexcusable”. Trump responded by calling him a “Rino” (Republican in title solely) and calling for him to face a main problem in his 2022 bid for re-election to the Senate.
However the two reconciled, and Thune visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago dwelling final March and endorsed his presidential candidacy.
Trump didn’t endorse any candidate within the election to exchange McConnell, with whom he had a frosty relationship and sometimes clashed.
Nonetheless, a few of his most fervent backers – together with entrepreneur Elon Musk, rightwing activist Charlie Kirk and broadcaster Tucker Carlson – vocally backed Scott. Kirk, particularly, drew consideration to Thune’s previous criticism of Trump in social media posts on the weekend.
However the interventions appeared to backfire, with some senators voicing anger on the makes an attempt of outsiders to affect their vote.
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