Do we like them?

Do we like John Thune?

Our score: 4 out of 10. Steady on Senate rules and not a conspiracy peddler, but his record on trans and gay rights counts against him and I found little real good beyond his job.

Thune is the Republican senator from South Dakota who became Senate Majority Leader in January 2025. He took the job promising to protect the filibuster, which turned out to be the defining fight of his time as leader. I couldn't open his official bio, so I'm not going to pad this with childhood details I can't source.

The Trump stoush is the story. Trump has demanded the Senate scrap the filibuster, partly to pass the SAVE America Act, and Thune keeps saying the votes aren't there and it's not happening. By May 2026 Trump was saying he was disappointed with him, though he blamed other Republicans too. Whether you call that principle or stubbornness, it's a bloke saying no to the boss.

Now the harm check. Thune scheduled a Senate vote on a bill to ban trans athletes from women's sports in February 2025, and in March 2026 he backed a Tuberville amendment on the same thing, which failed on a party-line vote. Back in 2004 he told Roll Call he believes in traditional marriage, and Roll Call reported he backed a federal constitutional amendment on it. That's a record of pushing against LGBTQ+ people's rights, but I found no conspiracy theories, anti-vax talk or election-denial claims from him.

On health care, the Senate in December 2025 rejected both a Democratic bill to extend the enhanced Obamacare subsidies and a Republican alternative. Thune said any extension would need 60 votes and called the Democratic version a disguise for Obamacare's rising costs, while saying he was open to more bipartisan talks. Millions of people were facing higher premiums, so where you land depends on whether you blame the subsidies or the shutdown fight.

The recent bit is the midterm crunch. In late September Thune said the Iran war had trumped everything else, and in August he said reopening the Strait of Hormuz was the best way to bring petrol prices down. I couldn't find the actual 3 November results in my sources, so I can't tell you whether he kept his majority.

The good stuff is thin. I found no charity work or personal kindness stories in what I could read. What I can credit is that he has resisted Trump's push to gut the filibuster, and also told Fox in February he gave the SAVE America Act a slim to zero chance of passing the Senate. That's institutional backbone rather than a kind act for anyone.