By
Ed Kilgore,
political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015
It truly stinks to be Senate majority leader.
When Senate Republicans chose a new majority leader in 2024, South Dakota senator John Thune narrowly defeated Texas senator John Cornyn. Since then, Cornyn’s career has taken a turn for the worse, culminating in his shocking landslide defeat in last month’s Texas GOP primary runoff. But in retrosepct, Cornyn might have been the lucky one. Yes, the Texan had to suffer the humiliation of Donald Trump endorsing his opponent, Ken Paxton, even after he all but crawled on his knees to Mar-a-Lago to show his loyalty to the president. But it turns out Trump had a different hell in mind for Thune, as he has perpetually thwarted his efforts to manage the U.S. Senate.
