Senate Majority Leader John Thune spoke with Donald Trump on Wednesday about how the president can “be a difference maker” in key 2026 Senate races, the South Dakota senator said in a wide-ranging sit-down interview with National Review on Thursday.
The Senate GOP leader acknowledged “some interesting situations, like Texas,” where incumbent Senator John Cornyn, who ran against Thune for Senate GOP leader last year, is up for reelection in 2026. Recent surveys suggest that Cornyn is polling underwater amid a Republican primary challenge from controversial Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“I’m all in, as I’ve made very clear, for John Cornyn, and so is the NRSC,” Thune said in reference to the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “The president has not weighed in on that one yet, so we’ll see how well that plays out,” he added. “But we’re working closely with him and his team on each of the individual races in terms of candidate recruitment, and if and when the president might endorse one way or the other.”
The Texas Senate primary race is expected to turn ugly. Today, Paxton’s wife, State Senator Angela Paxton, announced in a social media statement that she filed for divorce “on biblical grounds.” She added: “I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation. But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.”
Also in 2026, Senate Republicans are hoping to hold retiring Republican Senator Thom Tillis’s seat in North Carolina and flip retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters’s seat in Michigan. There’s also Maine, where centrist Senator Susan Collins is expected to face a tough reelection campaign.
“She is a political survivor” and a “very, very tough campaigner, and we feel very good about her race,” Thune said.
After a hugely successful 2024 cycle, Thune is bracing for a busy midterm. “We should do well, but we’re probably going to be looking at at least a handful of primaries,” he said.
More on Thune’s wide-ranging interview with National Review soon.