Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) started the year largely holding the GOP caucus together — but now his leadership style, more hands-off than his predecessor Mitch McConnell, is hitting its limit as the party sinks into faction-fighting, leaving many senators frustrated and wishing he would exert more control.
This is the assessment of Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio, who covered the growing tension in an analysis on Friday in a post to X.
“Thune’s leadership style is facing its biggest stress test yet amid GOP deadlocks on health care, approps & more,” wrote Desiderio. “His ‘let the members decide’ philosophy, a key element of his campaign to lead Senate R’s, helped him notch wins on OBBB, Cabinet noms, rules changes & more; but that strategy is failing to break major impasses & Thune is taking heat from multiple factions at once, reviving long-standing tensions among Senate R’s.”
The health care issue in particular is rapidly approaching its deadline, as GOP leadership promised a vote on a plan to address the end of Affordable Care Act subsidies — either extending them or coming up with an alternative plan to replace them — as a condition of ending the federal government shutdown.
According to Desiderio, “Some GOP senators are wondering whether Thune should go ‘full McConnell’ if the current headaches persist — ruling the conference with an iron fist.” However, Thune does not seem interested in changing course for now.
All of this comes as Republicans in the House face a breakdown of unity of their own, with many members in open revolt and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) facing a new level of career peril.
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