Company Man; Why John Thune’s Loyalty Runs Up-Hill, Not Down-Stream
- lhpgop
- 15 hours ago
- 3 min read
"Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) on Thursday called for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to fire Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough “ASAP,” hours after she delivered a major ruling against a Republican proposal to slash hundreds of billions of dollars in federal Medicaid spending to help pay for President Trump’s tax agenda.
The parliamentarian also ruled against provisions to prohibit federal funding of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for adults or kids whose immigration status cannot be immediately verified and to lower federal Medicaid funding for states that provide Medicaid coverage to immigrants in the country illegally." the HIll, 6//26/25
The person allowing this travesty to occur? The Senator from South Dakota, John Thune.
Why would Thune continue to allow so many tings to go on in this critical part of the budget process when 1000s of jobs are riding on the budget passing?
Probably because he heeds his master's voice.
THE SENATE LEADERSHIP TRAP: GREETINGS FROM THE "REPUBLICAN" SIDE OF THE SWAMP!
I. McConnell’s Golden Handcuffs
Since 2015, Mitch McConnell’s allies have used the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF)—an unlimited-donation Super PAC run by his former chief-of-staff Steven Law—to police the GOP caucus. In the 2024 cycle alone SLF raised about $67 million and had already booked tens of millions in ad buys for Ohio, Montana and Pennsylvania by mid-year. Its war-chest is refilled by a stable of megadonors: Ken Griffin ($10 million), Occidental Petroleum ($4 million), Chevron ($2.5 million) and the McConnell-aligned nonprofit One Nation ($7.2 million). opensecrets.orgfactcheck.org
How it works
Lever | What SLF supplies | What McConnell extracts |
Cash floods | Eight- and nine-figure independent-expenditure budgets in swing states | Compliance with leadership on rules fights (filibuster, reconciliation, parliamentarian) |
Gate-keeping | Early “reservation” of ad inventory that scares off rival PACs | Veto power over primary challengers who look too MAGA |
Revolving door | Board seats and consulting retainers for ex-senate staff | Long-term loyalty of operatives who return as chiefs of staff |
II. Why Senators Stay Captive
Re-Election InsuranceSLF can drop $10–15 million overnight to rescue an incumbent—or stay neutral and let them drown. That threat is usually enough to keep wavering senators in line.
Committee PowerMcConnell still controls the steering committee that doles out prized seats on Appropriations, Finance, or Armed Services. Crossing the leader means kissing those gavel ambitions goodbye.
Donor “K Street” ValidationFortune-100 lobbyists track SLF’s placement decisions as a proxy for who matters. If you’re iced out by SLF, PAC doors close on Capitol Hill receptions and fund-raising dinners.
III. Thune’s Personal Calculus
John Thune is not just a beneficiary of SLF; he is now a junior franchise-holder. His own allied Super PAC New Heights Action and its dark-money sister nonprofit raised $9 million last cycle—seeded by $1 million from Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman and six-figure checks from Golub Capital. Much of that cash was steered into SLF-favored state PACs, proving Thune can “play ball” with the big club. punchbowl.news
Rejecting McConnell’s procedural line—e.g., firing Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough to clear Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”—would trigger:
Money Freeze: SLF and its donor network simply stop writing checks, starving Thune’s machine in South Dakota and beyond.
Leadership Coup: A half-dozen McConnell loyalists have the votes to dump a whip who “went rogue.” Thune’s speaker-phone fundraising calls vanish overnight.
Reputational Blacklisting: Corporate boards and K Street firms regard SLF’s blacklist as a credit rating; a bad mark ends post-Senate cash-out prospects.
Put bluntly, betraying the populist base costs Thune much less than betraying the donor class.
IV. The Broader Toll on Populism
Policy Choke-Points – SLF-backed senators lean on the Parliamentarian, the Byrd Rule, and endless “scorekeeper” objections to neuter MAGA economic nationalism.
Candidate Filtering – Primary hopefuls who pledge tariff hikes or civil-service mass firings find their airwaves blank while SLF carpet-bombs them with negative ads.
Narrative Control – Establishment media cites SLF ad buys as proof of “electability,” marginalizing grassroots fundraising even before ballots print.
V. Conclusion
Mitch McConnell may be stepping back from the spotlight, but SLF keeps his hand on the throttle. Senators such as John Thune understand that survival in this ecosystem depends on appeasing a donor cohort deeply hostile to populist disruption. Until the MAGA movement builds an alternative financial infrastructure with equal reach and ruthlessness, the “rules-first” establishment will keep winning the long game—procedurally, quietly, and with a very big checkbook.
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