John Thune Biography

John Thune born as John Randolph Thune is an American politician who is serving as the senior United States Senator from South Dakota, a seat he was first elected to in 2004.

He was born on January 7th, 1961 in Pierre, South Dakota. John is the son of Yvonne Patricia and Harold Richard Thune. Harold Thune was a military pilot in the Pacific auditorium during World War II who flew the Grumman F6F Hellcat.

KELO News revealed that “Thune flew various missions for the Navy from a plane carrying warship. He got the Distinguished Flying Cross for shooting down four enemy planes in the Hellcat.” Harold Thune flew his missions off the USS Intrepid.

Thune’s fatherly granddad, Nicholas Thune, was an outsider from Norway who collaborated with his sibling Matt to begin Thune Hardware stores in Mitchell and Murdo, South Dakota.

Thune’s maternal granddad is from Ontario, Canada, and his mom was conceived in Saskatchewan. Thune’s sibling, Richard Thune, is an English educator at Rowland High School in California.

Thune was a star competitor in secondary school, dynamic in ball, track, and football. He moved on from Jones County High School in 1979.

He played school b-ball at Biola University in California, from which he graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in business. Thune got a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of South Dakota in 1984.

Subsequent to finishing his MBA, Thune ended up associated with legislative issues. He functioned as an authoritative helper for U.S. Congressperson James Abdnor from 1985 to 1987. In 1980 Abdnor had vanquished U.S. Congressperson, George McGovern.

In 1989 Thune moved back to Pierre, where he filled in as the official executive of the state Republican Party for a long time.

Thune was selected Railroad Director of South Dakota by Governor George S. Mickelson, serving from 1991 to 1993. From 1993 to 1996 he was the official executive of the South Dakota Municipal League.

John Thune Age

He was born on January 7th, 1961 in Pierre, South Dakota. He is 57 years old as of 2019.

John Thune Wife

He has been married to Kimberley Thune since 1984 and the couple has two kids together; Larissa Thune and Brittany Thune.

John Thune Height

He is 6′ 4″ (1.93 m) tall.

John Thune Net Worth

John has an estimated net worth of ‎$5 million.

John Thune Office | John Thune Email | John Thune Contact | John Thune Phone Number

Rapid City
246 Founders Park Drive
Suite 102
Rapid City, SD 57701
Phone: (605) 348-7551

Aberdeen
320 South 1st Street
Suite 101
Aberdeen, SD 57401
Phone: (605) 225-8823

Sioux Falls
5015 South Bur Oak Place
Sioux Falls, SD 57108
Phone: (605) 334-9596

John Thune Staff

Chief of Staff: Ryan Nelson
Scheduler: Johanna Scheich
Legis. Dir.: Jessica McBride
Press Secy.: Katie Lingle
Comm. Dir.: Ryan Wrasse
Veteran Affairs LA: Jon Abdnor
Military LA: Jon Abdnor
Child/Family Issues LA: Adam Wek
Health LA: Danielle Janowski
Financial Services LA: Joseph Boddicker
Foreign Policy LA: Jon Abdnor
Education LA: Adam Wek
Agriculture LA: Ryan Donnelly
Agriculture LA: Lynn Tjeerdsma
Telecomm LA: Alex Sachtjen
Elections LA: Jason Van Beek
Energy LA: Jon Abdnor
Environment LA: Jon Abdnor
Firearms LA: Jon Abdnor
Judiciary LA: Jason Van Beek
Tax LA: Joseph Boddicker
Transportation LA: Chance Costello
Trade LA: Joseph Boddicker
Commerce LA: Chance Costello
Labor LA: Adam Wek
Budget LA: Adam Wek
Arts/Humanities LA: Jon Abdnor
Civil Rights LA: Adam Wek
Government Affairs LA: Jon Abdnor
Housing LA: Adam Wek
Medicare/Medicaid LA: Danielle Janowski
Appropriations LA: Various
Science/Technology LA: Chance Costello
Social Security LA: Danielle Janowski
Space – NASA LA: Chance Costello
Pensions LA: Adam Wek
Animal Welfare LA: Ryan Donnelly
Animal Welfare LA: Lynn Tjeerdsma
Women’s Issues LA: Angela Merkle
Native American Affairs LA: Ryan Donnelly
Immigration LA: Jon Abdnor
Homeland Security LA: Jon Abdnor
Staff Asst.: Emily Easton
LC: Derek Chancellor
Counsel: Joseph Boddicker
LC: Lauren Greenwood
General Counsel: Jason Van Beek
Staff Asst.: Drew Lingle
Legis. Aide: Ryan Donnelly
Legis. Aide: Chance Costello
Legis. Aide: Angela Merkle
Legis. Aide: Alex Sachtjen
Legis. Asst.: Danielle Janowski
Legis. Asst.: Jon Abdnor
Legis. Asst.: Lynn Tjeerdsma
Legis. Asst.: Adam Wek
Office Manager: Becky Marr
Dep. Chief of Staff: Jessica McBride
Dep. Chief of Staff: Brendon Plack
State Dir.: Ryan Nelson
State Scheduler: Robin Long

John Thune Career | John Thune U.S. House of Representatives (1997–2003)

In 1996 Thune chose to make his first invasion into appointive legislative issues by entering the race for South Dakota’s solitary seat in the U.S. Place of Representatives. The Almanac of American Politics said that Thune “entered the 1996 race as particularly a longshot.”

His essential rival was sitting Lt. Senator Carole Hillard of Rapid City, who profited by the help of the long-lasting South Dakota representative Bill Janklow.

A May 1996 survey demonstrated Hillard in front of Thune 69%-15%. By depending on solid individual abilities and the assistance of his old system of Abdnor companions, Thune won the essential, overcoming Hillard 59%-41%.

In the general decision, Thune crushed Democrat Rick Weiland, a long-serving associate to U.S. Congressperson Tom Daschle, 58%-37%.

Thune won his ensuing races for U.S. House by wide edges. He was reelected in 1998 with 75% of the vote and in 2000 with 73% of the vote. In 2002, after quickly thinking about keep running for senator, Thune put his focus on keep running for the U.S. Senate.

John Thune Senator South Dakota | John Thune U.S. Senate (2005–present)

In 2002 Thune tested occupant Democratic U.S. Representative Tim Johnson. Thune lost by just 524 votes (0.15%). One examination finished up:

“While the edge of triumph [for Johnson] was a minor 524 votes, getting into that triumphant position required various significant components, including Native American turnout, the capacity of Johnson and his partners to all the more adequately utilize the ground war to get their message out, Thune’s ineffectualness reporting in real-time and absence of involvement in winning focused decisions, low voter turnout in key Republican regions, the dry season, lastly the nearness of Kurt Evans.

Evans, a Libertarian hopeful who pulled back from the race, embraced Thune, yet stayed on the tally and siphoned away a larger number of votes from Thune than Johnson.

Evans got just 3,070 votes, however that wound up being multiple times more prominent than the edge of triumph.” Despite the nearby outcomes, Thune did not challenge the race.

In 2004 Thune tested Tom Daschle, the United States Senate Minority Leader and pioneer of the Senate Democrats. In mid-2003 Daschle had out of the blue chosen not to keep running for president.

CNN revealed that the “declaration astounded even a portion of his nearest helpers, one of whom disclosed to CNN plans were being made for Daschle to report his bid Saturday in the place where he grew up of Aberdeen, South Dakota.”

This was the most costly Senate race in 2004, with $30 million spent, and the most costly race in South Dakota history. It was broadly followed in the national media. Thune, alongside Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, President of the United States George W. Shrub, and Vice President Dick Cheney, depicted Daschle as the “boss obstructionist” of Bush’s motivation:

“Thune had the option to censure ‘Daschle for serving incongruent experts’ and depict him, as Frist did when he came to South Dakota to crusade for Thune, as a divided obstructionist and political beneficiary to liberal symbol and previous Senator George McGovern of South Dakota.”

Daschle’s faultfinders accused the Democrat of utilizing delays to the square affirmation of a few of Bush’s candidates to the government legal executive and of being out of a venture with South Dakota voters on other political and social issues: “The GOP had focused on Daschle, the Senate minority pioneer, asserting he had been the main obstacle to President Bush on such issues as tax breaks, legal chosen people and the war in Iraq.”

At the point when the race started in mid-2004, Daschle is driven by 7% in January and February. By May, his lead tumbled to simply 2%, and into the late spring, surveys demonstrated a viable tie.

All through September, Daschle drove Thune by edges of 2–5%; from October until the November 2 decision, most surveys indicated Thune and Daschle attached 49% to 49% among likely voters.

On November 2, 2004, Thune crushed Daschle by 4,508 votes, winning 51% of the vote. Daschle’s misfortune was the principal expelling of an officeholder Floor Leader since 1952 when Arizona Senator Ernest McFarland lost to Barry Goldwater.

The New York Times announced that the misfortune made “Mr. Daschle the primary Senate party pioneer in over five decades to be cast a ballot out of office. The race hosted been intently viewed by the two gatherings, with White House authorities considering the congressperson an obstructionist for restricting the president on the war in Iraq, tax breaks, and legal chosen people.

Congressperson Daschle had contended energetically, raising $16 million during the battle as of mid-October, which he spent to a great extent on TV promotions. Mr. Thune had raised $10 million by a similar time.”

South Dakota local Tom Brokaw remarked that Thune “ran an extremely solid crusade” to win the 2004 race. College of South Dakota political researcher Bill Richardson stated, “persuaded John Thune supporters went to the surveys in enormous numbers, some portion of a monstrous South Dakota turnout. Informal outcomes show almost 80 percent of enrolled voters cast polls.”

After Thune vanquished Daschle, numerous Republicans viewed him as a “rising star with boundless political potential.”

Thune confronted no Republican or Democratic resistance for his Senate situate in 2010 and won re-appointment with 100% of the vote. Scott Heidepriem, the South Dakota Senate Minority Leader and a Democratic contender for Governor of South Dakota, stated, “We recently presumed that John Thune is a very well known congressperson who is going to win another term in the Senate.”

One political spectator of South Dakota legislative issues noted in 2010 that it was “the first run through in the state’s cutting edge history in which a noteworthy gathering has neglected to handle a Senate competitor.”

In 2016 Thune confronted Democratic competitor Jay Williams, Chair of the Yankton County Democratic Party. On November 8, 2016, Thune crushed Williams, winning 71.8% of the vote.

On December 6, 2006, Thune was picked by Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott to be the GOP’s Chief Deputy Whip. After quickly filling in as Republican Conference Vice-Chairman, in June 2009 Thune progressed toward becoming director of the Republican Policy Committee, the fourth-positioning position in the Senate.

In March 2009 Thune was one of 14 congresspersons to cast a ballot against a procedural move that basically ensures a noteworthy development of a national administration corps.

The Congressional Budget Office evaluated the bill would cost in any event $418 million in the financial year 2010 and $5.7 billion from 2010 to 2014.

He was chosen Republican Conference Chairman in 2011, getting down to business in January 2012. The Conference Chairman is the third-positioning position in the US Senate. In late 2011 the Mitchell Daily Republic revealed that “Thune’s height to the No. 3 spot makes him the most astounding positioning Republican congressperson in South Dakota history.

Thune has filled in as the executive of the Republican Policy Committee from 2009 until now and was a bad habit administrator of the Republican Conference from 2008 to 2009 and the Republican boss appointee whip from 2006 to 2008.”

Thune’s development as a traditionalist voice in the Senate picked up him a protracted profile in the preservationist magazine The Weekly Standard. The American Conservative Union gave Senator Thune a rating of 100 out of 2006 and again in 2010; starting at 2010 Thune’s lifetime ACU rating was 88.97.

Thune was commended in a 2010 Weekly Standard profile as a remarkable government official who seemed to be, not normal for a considerable lot of his partners, ready to impart conventional conservatism, making him a well-known option in contrast to Tea Party delegates.

In June 2018 Thune approached Special Counsel Robert Mueller to “begin twisting” down his examination concerning Russian impedance in the 2016 presidential race.

John Thune Committees

Committee assignments

Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry

• Subcommittee on Rural Revitalization, Conservation, Forestry and Credit
• Subcommittee on Energy, Science, and Technology
• Subcommittee on Production, Income Protection, and Price Support

Committee on Finance

• United States Senate Finance Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (Chairman)

• Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
• Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
• Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion
• Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance
• Subcommittee on Science and Space
• Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security

Committee on Budget

Caucus memberships

• Afterschool Caucuses

John Thune Political Positions

In March 2019 Thune was one of 38 legislators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue cautioning that dairy ranchers “have kept on confronting market flimsiness and are attempting to endure the fourth year of supported low costs” and asking his specialty to “unequivocally urge these ranchers to consider the Dairy Margin Coverage program.”

In December 2017 Thune was one of six representatives to sign a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer mentioning their “help in guaranteeing the long haul manageability of the 340B program”, a Trump organization principle commanding that medication organizations offer limits to social insurance associations directly serving huge quantities of low-pay patients.

In January 2019 Thune acquainted enactment with the nullification of the home expense, which applies to couples with bequests above $22 million (it is evaluated that around 1,700 families cover the regulatory expense yearly).

In February 2019 Thune was one of 20 legislators to support the Employer Participation in Repayment Act, empowering managers to contribute up to $5,250 to their workers’ understudy advances.

Thune noticed the solid condition of the economy and said they should keep their “foot on the gas bypassing good judgment bills like the one Senator Warner and I have recommended that would give youthful vocation searchers extra apparatuses to help defeat the weight of understudy advance obligation and engage bosses to draw in future ability.”

Since turning into a congressperson, Thune has played the main job in figuring vitality arrangement. He pushed for the last section of a far-reaching vitality charge, which defeated a progression of Democratic delays and passed the Senate in 2005.

Thune helped pass another vitality bill in late 2007. Thune promoters creating elective wellsprings of vitality, for example, ethanol and wind vitality; South Dakota has elevated amounts of corn generation and blustery prairies to deliver these types of vitality.

On March 6, 2014, Thune presented the Reliable Home Heating Act (S. 2086; 113th Congress). The bill would require the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to excluded engine bearers that vehicle home warming oil from various government wellbeing guidelines if the legislative head of a state proclaims a highly sensitive situation brought about by a deficiency of private warming fuel.

The bill additionally would require the Energy Information Administration (EIA) to tell states if certain oil stores fall beneath chronicled midpoints.

Thune said he was “confident that this enactment will dispense with formality for governors to all the more likely address the issues of their inhabitants and organizations during what can be risky conditions.”

In March 2019 Thune joined all Senate Republicans, three Democrats, and Angus King in casting a ballot against the Green New Deal goals. Contending against its usage, Thune said the goals would “completely be destroying and shocking” for the horticulture economy both in South Dakota and over the US.

In May 2016 Thune sent Facebook a letter mentioning subtleties on how it works its Trending Topics include. This pursued a Gizmodo article that referred to mysterious sources, professing to be previous Facebook representatives, who affirmed a foundational against moderate political inclination in how the material is chosen for presentation in the rundown.

A few observers censured Thune’s letter for instance of the government exceed against a privately owned business. Facebook denied inclination claims.

Thune expressed gratitude toward Facebook in an announcement saying, “Privately owned businesses are completely qualified for embrace their own perspectives, so I value Facebook’s endeavors to address claims of inclination brought up in the media and my worry about an absence of straightforwardness in its system for deciding slanting subjects.”

In November 2006 Thune said he accepted the US could win the Iraq War through solidness. He expounded, “It’s creation certain that Iraq can’t be an arranging ground for psychological oppressor assaults against its neighbors in the district or, more regrettable yet, against the United States.

I imagine that is the bare necessity. We need to accomplish security and solidness there, or if nothing else a dimension of soundness that doesn’t prompt further disorder, brutality, and at last future fear based oppressor assaults against the United States.”

Thune additionally upheld the position that while President Bush was available to more techniques in Iraq, his organization and a greater part of individuals from Congress would allow military authorities an ultimate conclusion on when to lessen U.S. military powers there.

In July 2008 Thune said that the Bush organization’s moves in Iraq had been an “amazing achievement”, taking note of regular citizen setbacks had been decreased by 80 percent and charged Democratic presidential competitor and Senator Barack Obama with falling flat “to recognize the essential actuality of the achievement and result and advancement and increases that have been made because of the flood.”

In December 2010 Thune was one of 26 legislators who cast a ballot against the confirmation of New START, atomic arms decrease arrangement between the United States and the Russian Federation obliging the two nations to have close to 1,550 key warheads and 700 launchers conveyed during the following seven years and accommodating a continuation of on-location assessments that stopped when START I terminated the earlier year. It was the principal arms arrangement with Russia in eight years.

In November 2012 Thune and Chuck Grassley mentioned that United States Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner give an audit of the Chinese organization Wanxiang Group’s arrangement to get bankrupt battery creator A123, contending that the exchange ought to be surveyed by the Geithner-drove Committee on Foreign Investment to guarantee that U.S. military and citizen interests in A123 were ensured.

In October 2018 Thune sent letters to CEOs of Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Supermicro mentioning staff briefings about a Bloomberg report that the Chinese government had embedded noxious equipment into server motherboards given by Supermicro, composing that charges “that the U.S. equipment inventory network has been intentionally messed with by an outside power must be paid attention to.”

In September 2016 Thune was one of 34 congresspersons to sign a letter to United States Secretary of State John Kerry upholding that the United States use “every single accessible instrument to discourage Russia from proceeding with its airstrikes in Syria” from an Iranian airbase close to Hamadan “that is obviously not to our greatest advantage” and expressing that the airstrikes abused “a lawfully restricting Security Council Resolution” on Iran.

In March 2018 Thune cast a ballot to table goals initiated by Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and Mike Lee that would have required President Trump to pull back American troops either in or impacting Yemen inside the following 30 days except if they were battling Al-Qaeda.

Thune was a piece of the gathering of 13 Senators drafting the Senate variant of the American Health Care Act away from plain view.

In July 2017 Thune said that Republicans would keep attempting to revoke the Affordable Care Act paying little respect to whether that month’s exertion fallen: “We are going to cast a ballot to cancel and supplant Obamacare. It is anything but an issue of it, it’s an issue of when.”

Thune is a solid promoter of weapon rights, supporting enactment that would permit people with disguised convey licenses to utilize such allows as a legitimate grant in different states. He likewise cast a ballot against prohibiting high-limit magazines of more than 10 projectiles.

On October 3, 2017, Thune turned into the focal point of media consideration for his reaction to the mass shooting in Las Vegas. “It sounds like [the shooter] utilized change packs and different things, you know, to make the weapons progressively deadly,” he said.

“We’ll take a gander at the certainties when we get them all in here. I think a great deal of us need to do all that we can to avoid disasters like that from happening once more. You know, it’s an open society.

What’s more, when someone does what he needs to do it will be difficult to avoid anything. In any case, I think individuals will need to make strides in their own lives to play it safe. To ensure themselves. Also, in circumstances like that, you know, attempt to remain safe. As someone stated, get little.”

In January 2018 Thune was one of 36 Republican representatives to sign a letter to President Trump mentioning he save the North American Free Trade Agreement by modernizing it for the economy of the 21st century.

In July 2018, as the Trump organization pushed for help for agrarian makers influenced by retaliatory taxes, Thune expressed that the arrangement offered a “false and present moment” conviction that all is good and referred to the significance of reasonable and facilitated commerce for ranchers in South Dakota.

John Thune Presidential And Vice-Presidential Speculation

Before the determination of Sarah Palin, Thune was referenced as a conceivable bad habit presidential pick for Republican chosen one John McCain in the 2008 presidential decision. Thune freely played down the hypothesis.

A noteworthy theory emerged in regards to a potential 2012 presidential offered by Thune. He was urged to keep running by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who called him “an accord manufacturer.”

One Wall Street Journal article expressed that Thune had “name ID in the pieces of the main gathering province of Iowa that get neighboring South Dakota media, a $6.9 million financial balance he could use for a presidential run, and a national raising support rundown of 100,000 names from his race against [former Senator Tom] Daschle.” DNC Executive Director Jennifer O’Malley Dillon freely expressed that “among a field of commonly imperfect (somehow) Republican presidential hopefuls, there is one who really frightens her.

‘This is personal[,] yet John Thune is someone that I have bad dreams about,’ she said. ‘I’ve worked for Tim Johnson and Tom Daschle and he is only a person you can’t ever tally out.'” According to various analysts, Thune’s appointment would benefit from outside intervention by his own appearance (he “resembles a president”). On February 22, 2011, Thune declared he would not keep running in 2012.

Throughout the late spring of 2012, the USA Today announced that “South Dakota’s Thune is on [the] short rundown for VP,” yet Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan was rather chosen as the running mate of Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

In spite of some theory, Thune declined to look for the White House in 2016, expressing that his “window…might have shut in 2012.”