Thune dishes on his midterm strategy
John Thune's approach to the midterms is a shaping up to be a mix of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.
In an interview previewing his 2026 strategy, the South Dakota Republican told Jordain that he's already 'coordinating closely' with Trump, including giving recommendations on potential candidates.
The majority leader's goal is to make sure that the Senate GOP campaign wing is 'rolling in the same direction' as Trump and Trump's political arm.
But Thune said he's willing to intervene in contested GOP primaries where he thinks a candidate would be doomed in the general election – an old McConnell tactic that sometimes annoyed others in the party.
'We're all about preserving and protecting and expanding our majority,' Thune said. 'So we want the best candidates on the field.'
Thune has three states so far where GOP senators are retiring: Alabama, Kentucky and North Carolina. Each is likely to have a competitive primary that pits factions of the party against each other.
In North Carolina, Thune has spoken with Lara Trump about the seat being vacated by Sen. Thom Tillis. Thune said the president's daughter-in-law 'would be great' before dropping the caveat, 'if she were to decide to do it.' Thune hinted we could hear more soon. Four GOP senators granted anonymity to speak candidly told Jordain they don't expect her to jump in.
Thune's potential primary problems aren't limited to seats where Republicans are retiring. They're facing a likely jam-packed primary field in Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp passed on challenging Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, whose own party is bullish about keeping his seat. Thune said he believes the state is a 'real pick-up opportunity' but that Republicans 'need a good candidate.'
Thune also has work to do in Iowa, with some of his members concerned that Sen. Joni Ernst might retire. Thune believes she'll run, and in the meantime has 'encouraged her to, and told her we'll do everything we can to help her' if she does.
Then there's Texas. Thune said it 'remains to be seen' if Trump will get behind Sen. John Cornyn, who is facing off against MAGA favorite Ken Paxton. Thune said Trump 'wants to see how the race plays out.'
The majority leader said he believes Cornyn would be 'by far the best general election candidate.'
Asked about Paxton's recently-announced divorce – with his wife citing 'biblical' reasons for the breakup – Thune said voters will realize 'there's a real contrast between these candidates, both in terms of experience and accomplishment, but also I think that those character issues are always a factor.'
That's not all Thune told us. He made news on Mike Johnson and Jeffrey Epstein, his CR strategy and more that POLITICO Pro readers got in an exclusive Q&A.
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WHAT WE'RE WATCHINGWith help from Jordan Williams
The House is out of session.
The Senate will vote to confirm Matthew Lohmeier as under secretary of the Air Force and to move forward on Richard Topping's nomination to be VA's chief financial officer at 11:30 a.m. A confirmation vote for Topping and a vote to end debate on Emil J. Bove's nomination to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals is expected at 1:45 p.m.
— Senate Appropriations will mark up fiscal 2026 Interior-Environment and Transportation-HUD appropriations bills at 9:30 a.m.
— Senate Judiciary will mark up the TRACE Act, Opioid Overdose Data Collection Enhancement Act and the CHILD Act of 2025, and vote on two U.S. attorney nominees at 10:15 a.m.
The rest of the week: The House is out for August recess. The Senate will continue working through appropriations bills and Trump's nominations.
Pro subscribers receive this newsletter with a full congressional schedule and can browse our comprehensive calendar of markups, hearings and other notable events around Washington. Sign up for a demo.
THE LEADERSHIP SUITE
Inside the House GOP Epstein rebellion
Speaker Mike Johnson has been trying to put out fires behind the scenes of one of the most pronounced breaches between Trump and key House GOP allies since he took the gavel: the stalled release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
In a revealing account of the House breakdown that derailed legislative action until September, Meredith Lee Hill and Hailey Fuchs report on a level of anger within the Republican conference over Epstein that goes beyond what is on display publicly.
Republicans have been bucking their own leadership, incensed about being all but forced to vote against Democratic efforts calling for the release of more information. In private meetings this week, Republicans — including committee chairs — have warned, and in some cases begged, leaders to act.
Rules Committee Chair Virginia Foxx and panel member Erin Houchin told House leaders Republicans wouldn't advance any rule for the week without a better solution to the Epstein issue, prompting Johnson to shut down the committee altogether. And just as lawmakers left town Wednesday, an Oversight panel approved a Democratic motion to compel Chair James Comer to subpoena the Justice Department for all Epstein files.
The revolt has stunned White House officials and GOP leaders — and it could continue the moment they return from August recess.
'I think the administration will put more stuff out in August,' Rep. Chip Roy said. 'And like I said, if they don't, then I promise you, there's going to be some more looking at this in the first week of September.'
Thune's betting on a short-term stopgap
Thune said Congress will need to pass a short-term funding bill to prevent a shutdown in October, Jordain reports from her exclusive interview with Thune, who detailed his early strategy ahead of the fall funding fight.
The Senate majority leader added the plan is to get signed into law as many of the 12 appropriations bills as possible, then use the patch to fund the rest of the government. Thune didn't co-sign an end date for the stopgap but acknowledged that Appropriations Committee Republicans are likely to want that it to go until only the year-end holidays. He also cautioned against the full-year continuing resolution that some GOP hard-liners want.
'It locks in spending from the last year,' Thune told Jordain. 'You don't get a chance to make judgments or decisions.'
Roy responded to Jordain's reporting on X, saying the deal for the GOP megabill put fiscal 2026 spending below current levels, whether through a continuing resolution or full appropriations bills.
'It should also be net of rescissions. And there should be more rescissions,' Roy wrote. 'Thank you for your attention to this matter.'
Sen. Mike Lee responded to the post with a '100' emoji. Thune, for his part, noted the Senate's bills will generally be at or below previous-year spending levels.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise agreed in a separate interview with Meredith on Wednesday that doing stopgap funding is 'not ideal' and that it's 'bad for defense.'
'We want to try to get a negotiated appropriations process. And we still have that ability,' Scalise told Meredith. 'That's why I'm so encouraged by the Senate finally ... moving appropriations bills through that chamber.'
Scalise eyes permitting reform for the fall
GOP leaders are looking at bipartisan permitting legislation this fall, Scalise said in the interview with Meredith. The majority leader said they would consider putting it in a standalone bill that would ideally require a bipartisan deal with Democrats.
'There is a lot of interest in getting that done, and Democrats in the past, some have said, 'We want to see permitting reform.' Let's give them that opportunity to help us get it done,' he said.
POLICY RUNDOWN
MILLER DETAILS NEW CRYPTO TAX BILL — House Ways and Means member Max Miller is now socializing the details of his sweeping cryptocurrency tax legislation, which was shared exclusively with POLITICO. Benjamin reports the proposal would make a variety of tax changes to provide better guidance to taxpayers and increase U.S. competitiveness in the digital asset space.
Among other policies, Miller's forthcoming draft bill would establish tax treatment for 'airdrops,' where crypto companies distribute free cryptocurrency to holders. It would also set rules for crypto lending protocols and create a new 'de minimis' rule exempting small transactions from capital gains tax.
Miller says he is now accepting public feedback on the framework and expects to release preliminary text in the coming weeks. Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith appears to be on board, too. When asked Wednesday if he had given Miller's plan his blessing, Smith replied, 'We love Max Miller!'
FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: BOOZMAN ANNOUNCES PHYSICIAN LEGISLATION — Sen. John Boozman is releasing bipartisan legislation today that would increase the number of Medicare-supported Graduate Medical Education residencies in the face of stark projections of physician shortages. The bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Raphael Warnock and co-led by Sen. Susan Collins and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. It could get combined with other bipartisan health legislation later this year.
Boozman's legislation would increase positions in rural hospitals, which are set to get hit hard by Medicaid cuts implemented by the GOP's recently-enacted domestic policy bill.
Finance Chair Mike Crapo took to the Senate floor Wednesday to renew a bipartisan push for an overhaul to drug intermediaries, which faltered at the end of last year. But with Democrats frustrated over the GOP's party-line actions, Finance member Thom Tillis told reporters Tuesday that he expects any health care policy to be shoehorned into a year-end appropriations bill.
NAME, IMAGE AND LIKENESS LEGISLATION FACES UPHILL BATTLE — Legislation that would codify brand rights for college athletes may face an uphill battle in the Senate, even if it can clear the House with the approval of the GOP and a handful of Democrats.
The bill was advanced Wednesday by both the Energy and Commerce and the Education and Workforce committees, as Nick Niedzwiadek reported. The measure has two original Democratic co-sponsors, but Energy and Commerce Democrats said the GOP was steamrolling them instead of working toward compromise on a number of issues, for instance the need for stronger guardrails against predatory agents who represent student athletes.
The top Democrat on the Senate Commerce committee, Maria Cantwell, also said that many of her colleagues had concerns about the legislation, which would need 60 votes to clear the chamber.
'We need to do a better job of taking care of mid-size and smaller schools,' Cantwell told Benjamin. 'We want to get something done, but can't do something that is just so in favor of the biggest institutions getting most of the revenue.'
GOP OPTIMISTIC ABOUT TRADE DEALS — Republicans left back-to-back meetings with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer this week praising current agreements from the Trump administration and predicting there would be more to come, Daniel Desrochers reports.
'The good thing was the Japanese agreement was reached and there are a lot of other agreements that are coming to a head,' Rep. Greg Murphy said. 'We knew it was going to take a while, we knew it was going to be an uphill, I don't want to say fight, a challenge.'
Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E:
CAMPAIGN STOP
COOPER WATCH — Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to announce a campaign for Senate as soon as Monday, two people familiar with his decision tell Elena Schneider.
The announcement would be enthusiastically welcomed by state and national Democrats as North Carolina represents one of the few offensive opportunities for the party.
On the Republican side, Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law, is considered by many to be a viable candidate, but it's unclear whether she would run at this point. RNC Chair Michael Whatley, who served as the head of the state's party, is interested but is deferring to Trump, POLITICO reported last month.
HUIZENGA FORGOES SENATE RUN — GOP Rep. Bill Huizenga will not run for Senate in Michigan next year after spending months irking congressional leadership by considering a bid for the open battleground seat, Gregory Svirnovskiy reports.
National Republicans pressured him out of the race to make way for former Rep. Mike Rogers and avoid a messy and expensive primary fight.
TUNNEL TALK
DEMOCRATS, FOOD WORKERS STAGE BOYCOTT — House food service workers, with support from Democratic lawmakers in the Labor Caucus, called for a boycott of some Capitol complex restaurants Wednesday. They're demanding that the new dining vendors agree to rehire the House's existing workforce and maintain their previous union-negotiated base pay and benefits.
Reps. Steven Horsford, Donald Norcross and Debbie Dingell joined the workers in protest outside the Capitol Building as the vendors delay recognition of their bargaining unit, Unite Here Local 23.
The boycott, which begins immediately despite the recess, includes six new venues: Starbucks, Pakistani food restaurant CHA Street Food, Jimmy John's, Common Grounds, Java House and PX Tacos.
Employees have only received return offers from one of the seven contractors so far — Metz, which is running the cafeterias, according to a statement from Unite Here.
JOB BOARD
Kobe Walker has been promoted to legislative assistant for Rep. Greg Landsman. She covers health policy for Energy and Commerce.
Joel Graham is now associate administrator for the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at NASA. He previously was a partner at Meeks, Butera and Israel.
Avery Blank is joining Qualcomm's AI legal team as senior legal counsel. She was previously counsel for the Senate Homeland Security committee.
THE BEST OF THE REST
As Palantir Cashes In on Trump 2.0, Peter Thiel Is Bankrolling Republicans Again, from Dan Friedman and David Corn at Mother Jones
Trump relents on his Senate grudges ahead of the midterms, from Burgess Everett and Shelby Talcott at Semafor
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Reps. Andy Barr and Rashida Tlaib … former Sen. Claire McCaskill … former Reps. Vin Weber and Charlie Crist … Margo Martin (3-0) … Vox Global's Robert Hoopes … John Brabender of BrabenderCox … POLITICO's Jessica Piper … Hillary Parkinson of Rep. Keith Self's office … Megan Ruane of Rep. Madeleine Dean's office … Allie Bedell of Canvass America … Ann Berry (7-0) … Chris Bond of AHIP … David Fuscus … former RNC Chair Marc Racicot … Christianné Allen Hughes … Adriane Casalotti of the National Association of County and City Health Officials … Agustina Pardal
TRIVIA
WEDNESDAY'S ANSWER: Charlie Dent correctly answered that President Harry Truman's daughter, Martha, pursued a career as an opera singer.
TODAY'S QUESTION, from Charlie: Which father-son pair held the same House seat and chaired the same committee? Name the seat and committee.
The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@politico.com.
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