At the Senate GOP meeting, where Republicans aired their grievances but kept Thune in charge

Senate Republicans gathered for hours to define how much time they had left in power and whether the leadership they had supported so far was the right choice to usher in a new era in Washington, DC.

Some closed-door meetings in the past two years when Republicans have controlled the Senate have been heated, with political arguments devolving into shouting matches — President Donald Trump and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., infamously clashed over the war in Iran earlier this year.

This conference, the first since Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats returned to the majority, was different. Part of it was coming up with a plan that would take them through the final weeks of this year — which was agreed upon at the meeting, but not without its own afterthought drama over who could claim the GOP’s 54-day blitz.

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., arrives at the Senate Republican leadership election at the U.S. Capitol on November 10, 2026. (CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

It was also a test to see whether Republicans wanted to keep Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., as leader, or wait for a challenger to emerge.

But the Republicans who were calling for a delay recognized part of the problem: Who would want the job?

“I got the job because no one else wants it,” Thune told Fox News Digital after the dust settled in the old Senate chamber.

And he did so, along with much of the leadership team that Senate Republicans elected when they won the majority two years ago, by acclamation, meaning no lawmakers objected to their slate of leaders.

Some told Fox News Digital it’s like “Festivus,” the holiday seared into Gen-Xers’ brains from “Seinfeld,” known for its grievances. Others described it as a frank and necessary debriefing as the GOP wades through the debris of election night.

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“It was really, to be honest with you, as deep as last week’s loss. I expected more emotion, which I take as a good sign,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital. “But I think it’s almost… It stands on its own because no one can argue that it’s a problem.”

“Now, it’s not like you’re looking for the positive side,” he continued. “It doesn’t exist. It’s like that, and we have to react.”

But there were some “rough” moments, particularly between Thune and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the driving force behind the push to delay the leadership election.

For Thune, the main question was what any other Republican Senate member would have done differently in his place.

“I just think that coming out of an election like this, everyone is looking for scapegoats and there’s a lot of blame going around, and I just wanted to stand up and basically defend what we had done and accomplished,” Thune said.

“And I think the key question is: Tell me what you would do differently? Both on the policy side and the legislative side. So we had a good, solid conversation, and we did. It always gets a little testy in the back and forth, but I thought overall the discussion was very frank and certainly gave everyone an opportunity to be heard.”

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Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., arrives at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on April 3, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

Johnson acknowledged he was “inclined to interrupt, I’m rude that way,” and told Fox News Digital he was sure Thune was “not happy that I did that,” but assured there was no “animus” between the two.

“In politics, everything has to be black and white and, unfortunately, for our base, the way to really get them going again is to fight between conferences, which doesn’t help,” Johnson said.

“So, again, I didn’t really like doing it, but it had to be done,” he continued. “I mean, we had to do it, and ultimately, I think, it resulted in a really, really good conversation and kind of revealed that we’re just lucky to have someone who wants these jobs.”

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital that Thune showed “moments of exceptional leadership” in the heat of the meeting.

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He noted that the top Republican’s rebuttal reminded lawmakers of “the ebb and flow of politics in our country,” dating back to 1986, when former President Ronald Reagan, then heading into his final Trump-like midterm elections, lost eight seats in the upper house.

“Obama lost nine Senate seats in 2014, it looks like we’re going to lose eight, depending on what happens in Alaska,” Daines said. “So it’s within the historical norms of coming and going.”

“And the leader laid that out forcefully, and then talked about what he needed to do to unify and ultimately win back the majority,” he continued.