Senate Republicans have elected Sen. John Thune (R-SD) – who has long been hostile to LGBTQ+ rights – as the next Senate majority leader in what is widely considered the party’s first rebuke of MAGA extremists since Donald Trump was elected president.

Thune, the current Senate minority whip, beat out Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida in the bid to replace longtime GOP leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who announced early this year his plans to step down from the Senate after eighteen years of leading the party in the chamber.

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Scott, the MAGA candidate in the race, didn’t even last through the final round of voting, earning just 13 votes in the first round despite being championed by Trumpians like Tucker Carlon, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy. Thune – who has a score of 0 on the Human Rights Campaigns Congressional Scorecard tracking LGBTQ+ support – then beat out Cornyn with a 29 to 24 vote in the second round.

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The 63-year-old South Dakota senator is considered an establishment Republican. His selection may signify that the GOP is not prepared to bend to Trump’s every whim (though the use of secret ballots in this particular decision likely played a role in the Senators’ votes).

Thune, in fact, opposed Trump’s quest to overturn the results of the 2020 election and originally endorsed Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) as the Republican nominee for president. He called Trump’s actions during the January 6th riot “inexcusable,” though he did vote “not guilty” in Trump’s impeachment trial over the matter. In 2016, he also called for Trump to drop out of the presidential race after the release of the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump bragged about assaulting women came to light.

Trump also once called Thune a RINO (Republican in name only) and “Mitch’s boy” and threatened to end his political career. But according to the New York Times, Thune has been repairing his relationship with the president-elect.

On social media, Trump – who did not personally inject himself in the race, likely because he did not want to embarrass himself in a losing battle – congratulated Thune on the victory.  “Congratulations to Senator John Thune, the Newly Elected Senate Majority Leader,” he said. “He moves quickly, and will do an outstanding job.”

Despite opposition to Trump in the past, Thune still emphasized in his acceptance speech that he was fully prepared to carry out Trump’s agenda.

“We will make sure that the president and his team have the tools and support that they need to enforce border security laws and to remove the violent criminals who are wreaking havoc in every one of our states,” he said.

As Russell Berman of the Atlantic pointed out, “a GOP leader’s distaste for Trump doesn’t always translate to legislative conflict,” as evidenced by McConnell’s public criticism of Trump as unfit for office yet his continued support throughout Trump’s first term as well as his vote to acquit Trump during his impeachment.

“We have a mandate from the American people, a mandate not only to clean up the mess left by the Biden-Harris-Schumer agenda, but also to deliver on President Trump’s priorities,” Thune told reporters after his victory. And in an op-ed vying for the Senate leadership position, he praised Trump for spurring “the broadest coalition of voters the Republic Party has seen in the modern era.”

He also blasted Democrats, who he said “will shun or cancel anyone who challenges liberal orthodoxy” and that the “Republican Party listens to our voters and celebrates the marketplace of ideas.”

He did, however, signify during his speech that he would keep certain processes in place that should maintain some semblance of business-as-usual in the Senate, such as the 60-vote threshold for beating a filibuster.

Thune is already facing pressure from Trump to shirk protocol and allow him to make recess Cabinet appointments. This means while the Senate is in recess, Trump could appoint people to his administration without Senate confirmation.

While the Constitution does allow for this scenario, it’s a clear attempt to bypass the democratic process and fulfill his promise to be a “dictator” on day one. Presidents have used this rule in the past when the Senate is in recess, but in this case, Trump is explicitly asking Senators to go into recess in order to grant Donald Trump appointment powers.

“What Trump is essentially doing is telling the Senate to give up one of its core constitutional roles,” Sarah Binder, a constitutional expert at George Washington University, told The Washington Post. “The Senate’s role of advice and consent was to be a check on who the president wants to put in these positions.”

Thune has not ruled out bending to Trump’s will on this, but he said he does “want to make sure our committees have confirmation hearings like they typically do.” And based on some of Trump’s wildly unqualified picks for Cabinet, it may be possible some are not confirmed. At biggest risk is the scandal-ridden Matt Gaetz, who recently resigned from the House of Representatives and is Trump’s pick for attorney general. Even many Republicans were shocked at the selection. Some commentators say the pick is Trump’s way of challenging Thune’s authority right out of the gate.

Thune has proven he is no friend to the LGBTQ+ community. He voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which provides federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages.

In 2006, he also co-sponsored a proposed Constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman, writing in a statement at the time that “the fabric of our society is under attack by anti-family activists with a narrow agenda aimed at dissolving the definition of marriage that has existed since the birth of civilization.”

Thune once voted against the right of gay couples to adopt children in Washington, D.C., and also voted against the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act more than once. This year, Thune – who is against abortion – voted no on the Right to Contraception Act.

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