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Sen. John Thune

Senate Minority Whip and Senator for South Dakota

pronounced jon // thoon

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 2028 and serves until Jan 3, 2029. He is 63 years old.

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.

Photo of Sen. John Thune [R-SD]

Analysis

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 legislators have sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Nov 21, 2024. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

John Thune sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Thune was the primary sponsor of 43 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 43 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 (26%) Agriculture and Food (18%) Health (15%) Science, Technology, Communications (13%) Environmental Protection (9%) Labor and Employment (7%) Native Americans (6%) Immigration (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Thune recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

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.

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Voting Record

Key Votes

Thune voted Yea

Motion Agreed to 59/35 on Dec 9, 2021.
This vote include a procedural change to allow an increase in the statutory debt limit through a subsequent bill, as well as other provisions related …

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

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

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 Nov 2024, Thune missed 57 of 6,554 roll call votes, which is 0.9%. This is better than the median of 3.0% 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, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

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