{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-democrats-embrace-far-left-agenda/", "Thune: Democrats Embrace Far-Left Agenda", "2026-07-20", "2026", "2026-07", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201cMr. President, at the beginning of last year the New York Times took a poll of American voters.\n\n\u201cAnd the headline captures their results:\n\n\u201cThis is what it said: \u2018Many Americans Say the Democratic Party Does Not Share Their Priorities.\u2019\n\n\u201cLet me repeat that, Mr. President.\n\n\u201c\u2018Many Americans Say the Democratic Party Does Not Share Their Priorities.\u2019\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\n\n\u201cA New York Times poll taken \u2026 weeks after voters rejected Democrats at the ballot box suggested that one of the reasons for Democrats\u2019 loss was that Americans don\u2019t think Democrats share their priorities.\n\n\u201cThe story went on to say, and I quote, \u2018The issues that people cited as most important to them personally were the economy and inflation, health care and immigration\u2026\u2019\n\n\u201cBut when the poll asked Americans to identify Democrats\u2019 most important priorities, Americans identified issues like abortion and climate change, among others.\n\n\u201cMr. President, our Democrat colleagues have found themselves out of power for 18 months now.\n\n\u201cAnd we\u2019ve given them plenty of opportunities to show some evolution \u2013 perhaps even moderation \u2013 to voters.\n\n\u201cBut as the record shows, Democrats are still in thrall to the far left of their party.\n\n\u201cThey still have the same priorities that turned voters off from Democrats in the last election.\n\n\u201cFor starters, radical transgender ideology remains an article of faith among Democrats.\n\n\u201cDemocrats have repeatedly opposed efforts to keep biological men out of women\u2019s sports.\n\n\u201cAnd when the Supreme Court ruled unanimously last month that state laws protecting women\u2019s sports are allowable under the plain language of Title IX, one Democrat senator called the ruling \u2018unjust.\u2019\n\n\u201cUnjust, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cAs if a young woman working hard all season only to lose to a man with an inherent biological advantage is somehow just.\n\n\u201cMr. President, the overwhelming majority of Americans believe that biological men should not be playing women\u2019s sports.\n\n\u201cBut that doesn\u2019t seem to matter to Senate Democrats.\n\n\u201cAnd their commitment to transgender ideology doesn\u2019t end with supporting the presence of men in women\u2019s sports.\n\n\u201cDemocrats have also tacitly \u2013 or not so tacitly \u2013 endorsed radical gender transition procedures being performed on minors.\n\n\u201cProcedures, I might add, with no substantial medical evidence to support them \u2013 and plenty of reason to believe they are extremely dangerous for children.\n\n\u201cBut apparently Democrats are fine subjecting children to those risks.\n\n\u201cAnd of course, Mr. President, Democrats are still proudly pro-abortion.\n\n\u201cAnd when I say pro-abortion, I mean pro-abortion.\n\n\u201cHow else do you describe a party that won\u2019t even support legislation to provide medical care to a baby born alive during a failed abortion?\n\n\u201cA party that can\u2019t bring itself to support a bill to ensure that a pregnant college student knows that there are resources available to help her finish her degree and have her baby.\n\n\u201cA party that directed small-business COVID relief funds to Planned Parenthood, even though they were legally ineligible.\n\n\u201cA party that is doing everything it can to eliminate pregnancy resource centers simply because they won\u2019t recommend abortion.\n\n\u201cMr. President, as I said, Democrats are in thrall to the far left of their party.\n\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s not just on those issues.\n\n\u201cFar-left activists seem to be the audience for almost everything Democrats do these days.\n\n\u201cTake, for example, Democrats\u2019 two \u2013 that\u2019s right, two \u2013 record-long government shutdowns.\n\n\u201cLast fall, Democrats shut down the entire federal government for a record 43 days to show the far left that they were \u2018fighting\u2019 President Trump.\n\n\u201cAnd while TSA lines snaked outside of airports and Americans were visiting food banks because they had to work without pay, the Democrat leader was quoted saying, and I quote, \u2018Every day gets better for us.\u2019\n\n\u201cBetter, that is, for Democrats seeking the approval of the far left.\n\n\u201cThen earlier this year, Democrats shut down the Department of Homeland Security because they didn\u2019t want to fund law enforcement.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\n\n\u201cDefunding law enforcement \u2013 once a fringe position in their party \u2013 became the official position of the Democrat Party as they tried to completely \u2013 completely \u2013 defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.\n\n\u201cOnce again, it didn\u2019t matter to Democrats whether Americans would be less safe with open borders.\n\n\u201cTheir audience \u2013 far-left activists \u2013 wanted them to defund border security and immigration enforcement officers, so they did.\n\n\u201cAnd Democrats weren\u2019t done.\n\n\u201cLast week, Democrats here in the United States Senate blocked the National Defense Authorization Act, the bill that authorizes funding for our military.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cDemocrats voted against authorizing funding for our military.\n\n\u201cMr. President, it\u2019s a sad day when Democrats are playing politics with everything all the way up to our national security.\n\n\u201cBut that\u2019s where we are.\n\n\u201cDemocrats have had numerous opportunities in the last year and a half to work with us on things that matter to the American people.\n\n\u201cAnd again and again, they have chosen to follow members of their far-left base.\n\n\u201cIn some cases \u2013 see New York City\u2019s mayor \u2013 follow them directly into socialism.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\n\n\u201cSelf-identified democratic socialists have been winning elections across the country.\n\n\u201cSo what\u2019s next?\n\n\u201cWill the Democrat Party adopt the platform of the Democratic Socialists of America?\n\n\u201cMr. President, to quote the New York Times again, and I quote, \u2018Many Americans Say the Democratic Party Does Not Share Their Priorities.\u2019\n\n\u201cA year and a half later, it\u2019s obvious that that\u2019s still the case.\n\n\u201cMen in women\u2019s sports. Abortion up until the moment of birth. Open borders. Defunding law enforcement.\n\n\u201cInstead of moving toward the middle, Democrats are just getting more extreme.\u201d", 1, "2026-07-21T07:32:02Z", "2026-07-21T07:33:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-democrats-embrace-far-left-agenda/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6558459717780352, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}