South Dakota Senator John Thune was elected Senate Republican leader on Wednesday, replacing Mitch McConnell in the role after his record 18-year run. Thune, who has been McConnell’s No. 2 since 2019, defeated Sen. John Cornyn of Texas on a second vote, 29 to 24. A third candidate, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, came in last place on the first ballot and was eliminated from statement.

Thune’s increase signals a slight but meaningful brake on the federal government’s coming MAGAfication. While some of President-elect Trump’s most vocal supporters, both inside and outside the Senate, had pushed Scott’s candidacy hard over the past week, the Senate stayed the course and chose as McConnell’s successor the one who would deviate least from McConnell’s old guard Republican. If there’s still a redoubt within the Republican Party where outside pressure from right-wing media can’t get the job done, it’s secret popularity contests in the Senate.

“A lot of people are focusing on policy, a lot of people are focusing on process,” Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a supporter of Thune, told reporters after the vote. “But when you have a peer-to-peer vote, it is also based on relationships. And Thune has done a really good job of building relationships, and so has Cornyn. And that’s what it really comes down to: relationships.”

Thune came to the Senate with a bang 20 years ago. He defeated Senator Tom Daschle, then the Senate Democratic leader. He worked his way up to the third position in 2012 and succeeded Cornyn as the Republican whip for a limited term in 2019. In that respect, Cornyn was as much a victim of peaking at the wrong time as anything else. As a long list of once-potential successors to Nancy Pelosi will well understand, McConnell lingered in his position a little longer than was ideal. No wonder one of the clearest dividing lines between the top two candidates was Cornyn’s support for term limits for party leaders, an idea McConnell rejects.

Thune, an amiable 63-year-old who is more comfortable talking about the Senate calendar than castigating his opposition as demonically possessed, made an effort for a partisan opener at a news conference after the Republican conclave Senate.

“The American people have loudly rejected the failed policies of the Biden-Harris-Schumer agenda,” Thune said. “We have a mandate from the American people, a mandate to not only clean up the mess left by the Biden-Harris-Schumer agenda, but also to deliver on President Trump’s priorities.” Thune, who in the past has stuck around for 10 to 15 minutes after GOP leadership press conferences to answer questions from reporters, this time took three questions from reporters on camera and moved on. He has begun to enter his McConnellesque bunker.

While Thune doesn’t have the bitter history with Trump that McConnell did, they don’t fit hand in hand. Although Thune was patient, he seemed anguished during the first Trump administration when asked about the stupid tweet Trump put out at 7 a.m. Thune is more of a Chamber of Commerce crusader for low taxes than a culture warrior calling out woke capitalism; Especially when it comes to Trump’s plans for broad tariffs, the two seem most mismatched. Trump and Thune clashed most in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when Thune argued that the Electoral College objections would “hit like a bull’s eye” in the Senate. Trump then called Thune “Mitch’s boy” and said that “in 2022 he will have primaries, political career over!!!” The whole thing was so exhausting for Thune that he seemed genuinely torn about running for re-election in 2022. His potential, even probable, promotion to party leader two years later won him over.

So Trump allies on the right, like Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk, who pushed for Scott’s candidacy, were not wrong to have trust issues with Thune. After all, when Trump issued an early loyalty test for the three candidates — insisting that they allow recess appointments for Trump nominees, allowing them to resist Senate control — Scott was the only candidate who was in complete agreement, while the others left it open. as a possibility.

But Trump allies in the right-wing media are not voting for the leader. Senators do that, and maybe Thune does too lost votes, he had agreed to Trump’s plan to strip the Senate of its advisory and consent role. In any case, Trump himself did well to remain neutral in the Senate leadership battle, knowing that this was an internal battle where his input would have limited effect, and where his instincts could have embarrassed him.

Now, however, the secret ballots are over. Both Trump and his allies will have ample opportunities to impose their will on the Senate in the future. For example, it is hard to believe that MAGA’s defeat in the Senate leadership race did not happen some effect on Trump’s actions in the coming hours, when he nominated Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general. These nominations will pose a dramatic test of loyalty for the Republican Senate – both in terms of their appointments and, should they fail, the Senate’s willingness to adjourn to accommodate their recess appointments. It was a good morning for the old guard. Wednesday afternoon was their reminder of that changed.

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