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Sen. John Thune

Senate Minority Whip and Senator for South Dakota

pronounced jon // thoon

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Thune is the senior senator from South Dakota and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 4, 2005. Thune is next up for reelection in 2022 and serves until Jan 3, 2023.

He is also Senate Minority Whip, a party leadership role. Party leaders focus more on setting their party’s legislative priorties than on introducing legislation.

He was previously the representative for South Dakota’s at-large district as a Republican from 1997 to 2002.

Thune has cosponsored 16 bills introduced in the current Congress by Republican legislators who fomented the terrorist attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 by calling for entire states to be disenfranchised in the 2020 presidential election.
Photo of Sen. John Thune [R-SD]

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2020 Report Card for Thune.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Thune is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Thune has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Jun 10, 2021. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

United States Chamber of Commerce: 90% The Club for Growth: 72% League of Conservation Voters: 11% American Civil Liberties Union: 0% Human Rights Campaign: 0% The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: F Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 0%

Committee Membership

John Thune sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Thune was the primary sponsor of 38 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 38 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Thune sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Taxation (24%) Science, Technology, Communications (16%) Transportation and Public Works (13%) Health (12%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (10%) Agriculture and Food (10%) Native Americans (9%) Armed Forces and National Security (5%)

Recent Bills

Some of Thune’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

As Senate Minority Whip, Thune may be focused on his responsibilities other than introducing legislation, such as setting the chamber’s agenda, uniting his party, and brokering deals.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Thune voted Yea

Conference Report Agreed to 83/16 on Feb 14, 2019.
This bill, in its final form, funded the parts of the federal government whose funding was to lapse on February 15, 2019. On December 22, ...

Thune voted Yea

Bill Passed 72/26 on Sep 28, 2016.
The Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act (H.R. 5325) is an appropriations ...

Thune voted Yea

Motion Agreed to 64/35 on Oct 30, 2015.
This vote was on the bill in its final form as the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015.

Thune voted Yea

Joint Resolution Passed 78/22 on Sep 18, 2014.

Thune voted Yea

Bill Passed 64/34 on Jan 31, 2013.

Thune voted Yea

Thune voted Yea

Thune voted Yea

Motion Agreed to 81/19 on Dec 15, 2010.
The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (Pub.L. 111–312, H.R. 4853, 124 Stat. 3296, enacted December 17, 2010), also known ...

Missed Votes

From Jan 2005 to Jun 2021, Thune missed 51 of 5,191 roll call votes, which is 1.0%. This is better than the median of 1.6% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: