Sen. John Thune announced that he will not run for president, saying, “I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America’s future here in the trenches of the United States Senate.”
I think this is a wise decision by Thune. If the reaction to his rather pedestrian speech at CPAC earlier this month was any indication, there simply wasn’t much enthusiasm for a run by this South Dakota Senator, and really the only reason he was discussed at all was because of the weakness of the rest of the field.
Others are already starting to speculate as to how this will affect the rest of the race — who it will help, who it will hurt. But honestly, his absence is unlikely to have much of an impact, because his candidacy wasn’t going anywhere in the first place, which is probably why he decided not to run.
Still, coming on the heels of the announcement by Rep. Mike Pence that he won’t run for president, it seems like next year’s primaries could be devoid of high-profile members of Congress. We may be looking at a field of mostly governors and novelty candidates a la Herman Cain.
