Senate

Thune Won’t Run for President

By Jay Newton-Small | @JNSmall | February 22, 2011 | +

South Dakota Senator John Thune said Tuesday in a statement he will not seek the Republican nomination for President in 2012. Thune’s name had been floated as the sole sitting senator who might make a run. After beating Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in 2003, Thune has quickly climbed the Senate ranks. He currently serves as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, the No. 4 leadership spot in the conference. The retirement of Arizona’s Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Senate Republican, might have tempted Thune to stay in the Senate and continue advancing in leadership. Thune has made no official bid for Kyl’s position. Senators Lamar Alexander, the No. 3 Republican, and John Cornyn, the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, are both already running for the No. 2 slot.

Thune’s statement is below:

For months now, my wife Kimberley and I have received encouragement from family, friends, colleagues, and supporters from across South Dakota and the country to run for the presidency of the United States. We have appreciated hearing their concerns about where the country is headed and their hopes for a new direction.

During this time, Kimberley and I and our two daughters have given a great deal of thought to how we might best serve South Dakota and our nation. That process has involved lots of prayer.

Along the way, we have been reminded of the importance of being in the arena, of being in the fight. And make no mistake that during this period of fiscal crisis and economic uncertainty there is a fight for the future direction of America. There is a battle to be waged over what kind of country we are going to leave our children and grandchildren and that battle is happening now in Washington, not two years from now. So at this time, I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America’s future here in the trenches of the United States Senate.

I want to thank those who have encouraged us and prayed for us during the past several months. We are forever grateful for all the support.

John and Kimberley

Subscribe to Jay Newton-Small on Facebook
Related Topics: 2012, john thune, 2012 Election, Congress, Republican Party, Senate, White House

  • Latest on Swampland

    2012 Election May 25, 2012

    The Phony War: Obama and Romney Are Debating Character, Not Policy

    More than five months from Election Day, the back-and-forth about Mitt Romney’s record at Bain already feels played out. Unfortunately, there’s good reason to expect the campaign continues in this vein indefinitely. Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney are terribly interested in dwelling on policy platforms. Romney’s plan to slash spending and keep taxes low on the wealthy isn’t especially popular, at least not at any level of detail beyond a blithe promise to shrink the deficit. Meanwhile, Obama’s signature first-term achievements, like health care, the stimulus and Wall Street reform, are all unpopular or tricky to sell. (The Dodd-Frank bill is the most popular of these, but hyping it means offending wealthy donors.) So what we’re getting instead is a superficial duel about character–and, worse, one that’s based on the largely false premise that the better man can better “manage” the economy back to health.

    From our Partners

    Obama Administration Blocks Global Health Fund To Fight Disease In Developing NationsHuffPost Politics

    Barack Obama May 25, 2012

    Audacity of Dope: Tales of a Toking Teenage Obama

    We knew Barack Obama smoked weed in high school because he wrote about it in his books. What we didn’t know, until Buzzfeed posted these choice nuggets (I’m so sorry) from David Maraniss’s new book on the President’s younger years, were the giggle-worthy details of his “Choom Gang” lifestyle, which are right out of a buddy stoner flick. Obama and his friends drove around the lush Hawaii countryside, hot-boxing their VW bus and re-upping with a long-haired pizza-tossing dealer named Ray, whom Obama thanked in his yearbook “for all the good times.”

  • afguy

    Refresh my memory…
    .
    Exactly what has John Thune done that would quality him for the office of President of the United States ANY public office?

  • afguy

    qualify*

  • nflfoghorn

    *Quantico ;)

  • afguy

    Hey, it’s the first day back after a three-day weekend… gimmee a break. ;-)

  • nflfoghorn

    HA!
    To your point, I’m guessing RustFreep & Co. would say the same thing about our current “der leader.” ‘Specially since he wasn’t born here, right?

  • Paul-no not that one

    OT but who really cares about Thune-
    .
    So…
    .
    “House Democrats are leaving the state rather than vote on anti-union legislation, The Indianapolis Star has learned.
    .
    A source said Democrats are headed to Illinois, though it was possible some also might go to Kentucky. They need to go to a state with a Democratic governor to avoid being taken into police custody and returned to Indiana…..
    .
    Today’s fight was triggered by Republicans pushing a bill that would bar unions and companies from negotiating a contract that requires non-union members to kick-in fees for representation. It’s become the latest in what is becoming a national fight over Republican attempts to eliminate or limit collective bargaining…..
    .
    Gov. Mitch Daniels had said he supports the policy his party is pursuing in this legislation, but said earlier that this is not the year to do it with so many other critical legislation in the works”
    .
    http://www.indystar.com/article/20110222/NEWS/110222004/House-Democrats-flee-Indiana-stop-votes

  • afguy

    OT but who really cares about Thune-
    .
    True, Paul, but you practice “snark” with the object you have, not the object you wish you had…

  • Matt

    No question it’s politically better for Thune to stay in the Senate and try to grab some serious power once the GOP takes control rather than risk complete political destruction in a rollicking Republican primary. Thune is too respectable a politician to stand on a stage with Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann and debate serious issues with these freaks.
    http://www.sunstateactivist.org

  • afguy

    This is going to get interesting..
    .
    The states that are considering “collective bargaining” limitations have enough “neighbors” with Dem governors that the tactic we see can be employed without having to worry about a GOP governor honoring a request to “send them back”.
    .
    The longer this is “out there”, the worse the “heavy-handedness” looks to the public.
    .
    And the more “other information” becomes available…

  • afguy

    In addition, being pretty much a cipher doesn’t help his Presidential ambitions either…

  • Paul-no not that one

    “And the more “other information” becomes available.”
    .
    This seems to be the most tangible result.
    .
    The numbers are the numbers as far the legislatures are concerned but educating the public has great value.

  • Alex Vallas

    The GOP candidates will be too worn out to run for office after they finish screwing the American public.

  • http://erieangel.wordpress.com erieangel

    I’d never even heard of Thune until a couple of months ago. Can’t see where he’s a big deal either. But it looks like the GOP is going to have a really hard time finding a single candidate, let alone several viable choices to make a decent primary. Iowa is just a year away guys, last election cycle there were several people in the race this far out.

  • acameronw

    And now a message from the Department of the Bloody Obvious:

    Any GOP candidate who survives the ideological purity test that the Tea Party is going to impose will be too conservative (or flat out bats**t crazy) to pull in the independents. Any GOP nominee who is moderate enough to attract independents (assuming one exists) is going to drive the Tea Party loyalists into a third party movement. (Unless a sheep in wolf’s clothing like Dick Armey can pull them back into the tent.)

    And viz. Huntsman (and Romney, for that matter): the media is too skittish about appearing intolerant to Mormonism to address that particular elephant in the room. There has always been a fundamentalist streak in the modern GOP that became ascendant in the Reagan years. (By that I mean he paid lip service to fundamentalism while largely ignoring their agenda.)

    Romney and Huntsman already carry enough baggage (Romneycare/collapsible principles and service in the Obama administration, respectively) to make them anathema to the fundamentalists. Does anyone really expect a group that views Lutherans with a high degree of suspicion to support a Mormon?

    (And please don’t jump on me for religious bias. I’m just making a political observation.)

  • lepidusxvi

    Seems to me he gains far more from announcing he’s not running than he would running.
    .
    The note wasn’t exactly definite too. If he sees an opportunity, I am sure he’ll be “dragged into the race” out of “duty.”
    .
    Seems to me though that the Republican nomination process is going to be an utter blood bath. Hopefully for democracy’s sake they nominate someone sane though. I’m pro Obama, but a real challenge forces a real candidate to consider his positions more carefully. If Republicans nominate Palin or Bachman or something, it’ll be such an easy race that Obama will basically be left a mandate to do and say whatever pops to mind.
    .
    A good Republican challenger, whether you’re a Dem or Republican, is good for the country.

  • apr2563

    Interesting to see who the Rep money pits eventually back.
    .
    This from Murdoch NY Post:
    .

    Romney’s private equity firm, Bain Capital, bought companies and often increased short-term earnings so those businesses could then borrow enormous amounts of money. That borrowed money was used to pay Bain dividends. Then those businesses needed to maintain that high level of earnings to pay their debts.

    .
    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/ad_mitt_mistakes_jRmd2LHaPIb0bbNn1ZkgaJ#ixzz1Eja7LuHq
    .
    The Republican Overlords Will Decide Their Candidate
    .

    The visitor, Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity, told a large group of counterprotesters who had gathered Saturday at one edge of what otherwise was a mostly union crowd that the cuts were not only necessary, but they also represented the start of a much-needed nationwide move to slash public-sector union benefits.

    “We are going to bring fiscal sanity back to this great nation,” he said.

    What Mr. Phillips did not mention was that his Virginia-based nonprofit group, whose budget surged to $40 million in 2010 from $7 million three years ago, was created and financed in part by the secretive billionaire brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch.

    .
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/us/22koch.html?pagewanted=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha24

blog comments powered by Disqus