Senate's No. 2 Republican, John Thune, to face primary challenge

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Sen. John Thune, Republican Minority Whip, is facing a primary challenge back home. 

South Dakotan Mark Mowry, who has never held elected office, announced this week he will challenge Thune in the state's June 2022 Republican primary. 

Thune won reelection to his seat in 2016 with 71% percent of the vote. Before being elected to the Senate, he represented South Dakota’s lone congressional district in the House from 1997 to 2003.

Mowry, a "ranch-raised" husband and father to four grown children, said he’s running on an "America First" platform. "The battle being fought is that of Globalism vs. Nationalism," he said. 

Mowry’s background is in music, writing and education. He and his wife took their children to India for a mission trip in 1993 and ended up working and serving there for 20 years. 

"Why am I running for this position? I am running because I THINK THIS IS WHAT I’M SUPPOSED TO DO," Mowry writes on his website. He also said the last thing South Dakotans need is another "career politician."

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"It has been, after all, the political finesse and posturing by our representatives that has brought us to this point, to seek to ‘primary’ a luminous South Dakota senator," he added. 

Mowry said that in Congress he would read bills all the way through before voting on them or demand they be shortened if they are too long to read before a vote. 

He also said he is pro-life and "suspicious" of any type of gun legislation. He believes in strong and "pervasive" law enforcement and protecting borders, he said. 

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"The moorings of our republic are built on the strength of family. I will not vote in a manner that compromises the strength of the nuclear family," Mowry added in a statement on his release. "I believe we have been bamboozled by the pandemic. I will support every effort to reopen every aspect of our economy to run at full strength again, without regard to the world's blessings or curses. We need to take up the helm if we are to maintain a republic."

Mowry also, without a clear explanation, said he is running against Thune due to his response to the Jan. 6 riot. "On the subject of running on the Republican ticket for the office of United States Senator- IT’S PERSONAL," he writes on his website. "I believe that John Thune, [Sen.] Mike Rounds, and [Rep.] Dusty Johnson all know the reality of the January 6 breach, and I believe that these men need to be brought to account for allowing their constituencies to be left dangling in uncertainty regarding the serious consequences of inadequate and questionable security measures conducted that day."

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Thune was not one of six GOP senators who voted to impeach President Trump after the Capitol riot,  but when he disrupted Trump’s baseless allegations of election fraud, the former president declared the senator’s "political career over" and suggested GOP Gov. Kristi Noem, a Trump fan favorite, make a primary challenge in 2022. She quickly bowed out from challenging Thune next year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.