Next Senate Leader Needs To Be An Independent Voice, South Dakota Republican Says

Sen. Mike Rounds said Sunday that the next Republican Senate leader should be an independent voice like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, rather than someone who would simply kowtow to former President Donald Trump.

"We’re prepared to work with whoever the next president is," Rounds (R-S.D.) said on ABC's "This Week," before qualifying his statement: "But I think you’re going to find that a lot of folks in the Senate will take their own time in terms of how they work through" and decide "on a vote-by-vote basis when they’re going to support the president and when they’re not."

McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in American history, said Wednesday he would step down from his leadership position in November. “I’m no longer the young man sitting in the back hoping colleagues would remember my name. It’s time for the next generation of leadership,” McConnell said.

Trump, the GOP front-runner, has frequently been critical of McConnell since he left the presidency in 2021, dubbing him a "RINO" and calling him an "Old Crow." Last week, the GOP presidential front-runner encouraged Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) to jump into the Senate leadership race.

Rounds said Sunday that he recognized Trump would have a voice in who the next leader would be. But at least partially because Rounds wants that person to be independent, he said, he is backing his fellow South Dakotan John Thune, who has frequently been criticized by Trump.

"I think he will be independent enough to where he will look out also, just like Mitch did, for the institution of the Senate itself," Rounds said of Thune.

Rounds also described Thune as "a fresh breath" and "the right guy at the right time."

Regardless of how the Senate leadership situation shapes up, Rounds made it clear that he does want the eventual Republican presidential nominee to prevail in November.

"Whoever the Republican nominee is, we’re going to get behind them and we’re going to make sure that this thing happens," Rounds said.