Republicans pick Thune over Trump loyalist as Senate majority leader

Senator John Thune of South Dakota beat Trump’s loyalist Rick Scott to lead the Republican-controlled Senate.

Republicans in the United States Senate picked veteran John Thune to be the chamber’s new leader, as lawmakers, scrambling to prepare for President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, rejected his camp’s favoured candidate.

Thune, who already holds a more junior leadership position, beat Texas Senator John Cornyn in a run-off vote to replace outgoing party leader Mitch McConnell. He had earlier won out against Florida’s Rick Scott, a hardline conservative and Trump loyalist.

The South Dakota senator is viewed as a well-regarded insider. His win comes on the heels of a public pressure campaign by supporters of the incoming president to pick Scott, who lost in the first round with only 13 votes.

Thune’s win in a three-way contest is a sign the Senate could retain some degree of independence from Trump next year. Scott was backed by influential outsiders like billionaire Elon Musk and conservative commentator Sean Hannity. That made the normally clubby election an early test of Senate subservience under Trump, who did not endorse a candidate.

The vote came moments after Trump met President Joe Biden for a traditional courtesy call between the incoming and outcoming occupants of the White House.