South Dakota Sen. John Thune was elected Senate Republican leader on Wednesday, replacing Mitch McConnell in the role after his record-setting run of 18 years. Thune, who’s served as McConnell’s No. 2 since 2019, beat out Texas Sen. John Cornyn on a second ballot, 29 to 24. A third candidate, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, came in last place on the first ballot and was eliminated from contention.

Thune’s elevation signals a slight but meaningful check on the incoming MAGAfication of the federal government. While some of President-elect Trump’s most vocal supporters both inside and outside the Senate had pushed Scott’s candidacy hard in the past week, the Senate stayed its course, selecting as McConnell’s successor the one who would stray the least from McConnell’s old-guard GOP. If there’s still a redoubt in the GOP where outside pressure from right-wing media can’t get the job done, it’s secret-ballot popularity contests in the Senate.

“A lot of people focus on policy, a lot of people focus on process,” Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Thune supporter, told reporters after the vote. “But when you’re a peer-to-peer vote, it’s also based on relationships. And Thune has done a really good job building relationships, and so has Cornyn. And that’s what it really comes down to: relationships.”

Thune came to the Senate 20 years ago with a bang. He defeated Sen. Tom Daschle, then the Senate Democratic leader. He worked his way up to the No. 3 position by 2012, and succeeded a term-limited Cornyn as the Republican whip in 2019. In that respect, Cornyn was as much a victim of peaking at the wrong time as anything else. As a long list of once-potential Nancy Pelosi successors will........

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