{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-reflects-on-his-south-dakota-roots-and-values-that-shaped-him/", "Thune Reflects on His South Dakota Roots and Values that Shaped Him", "2026-07-23", "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, over the weekend I headed back to Jones County, South Dakota, for my high school reunion.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s been a few years since high school, Mr. President \u2013 just a few.\n\n\u201cBut it\u2019s amazing how the years roll away when you head back and see some of the people who shaped your high school years.\n\n\u201cSome of them are missing now, of course.\n\n\u201cTeachers.\n\n\u201cCoaches.\n\n\u201cParents.\n\n\u201cMy dad, who was a teacher at my high school, a coach at my high school, and the bus driver at my high school.\n\n\u201cAnd my mom, who served as the school librarian.\n\n\u201cNeedless to say, we Thune kids didn\u2019t get away with much in our high school years.\n\n\u201cMy high school reunion this year happened to coincide with the 120th anniversary of the town of Murdo where I grew up \u2013 current population: roughly 500.\n\n\u201cAnd being back in Jones County and in Murdo really got me to reminiscing about growing up in small-town South Dakota \u2013 about how blessed I was to grow up in a small town in South Dakota.\n\n\u201cPeople discuss the loss of community today that can result from the circumstances of modern life.\n\n\u201cThat was never something we had to worry about in Murdo.\n\n\u201cIn Murdo, you knew you were part of a community.\n\n\u201cRural South Dakotans are sturdy and independent people, but they also know from experience that you can\u2019t get by in a small town on the prairie without the support of your neighbors.\n\n\u201cAnd when someone was in need in Murdo, the whole town rallied around to help \u2013 whether it was an unexpected death in the family or the collapse of a barn roof.\n\n\u201cWe celebrated with each other too \u2013 whether it was a harvest, Fourth of July, pheasant season.\n\n\u201cAnd the whole town swelled with pride at one of its kids\u2019 achievements.\n\n\u201cI carry the sense of community and belonging I had growing up in Murdo with me to this day.\n\n\u201cAnd I carry those small-town South Dakotans with me in a special way in my work here in Washington.\n\n\u201cWhen we look at a government regulation, I think about what impact it will have on small-town South Dakota \u2013 on the people in our state like the ones that I grew up with.\n\n\u201cIs it going to lighten their burden?\n\n\u201cOr is it going to add new challenges on top of those they already face?\n\n\u201cAgriculture is the lifeblood of our state; it was the lifeblood of Murdo as well.\n\n\u201cFarmers and ranchers have a tough job: backbreaking work in all weathers \u2013 work that can be destroyed in an instant by a storm or a flood.\n\n\u201cI want to ensure that Washington isn\u2019t making their life even tougher than it is already.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019ve fought for things like the elimination of the death tax \u2013 so that farmers and ranchers can hand down the family enterprise to their kids, and don\u2019t have to spend time and money on costly estate planning.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s also why I\u2019ve fought to ensure that federal farm programs are actually serving farmers \u2013 that they take into account the realities of farm life and keep pace with changes.\n\n\u201cYou can bet that I had small-town South Dakota in mind when I fought to pass the tax relief [for] hardworking Americans in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act \u2013 and then when we made that new tax relief permanent in the Working Families Tax Cuts just last year.\n\n\u201cI think a lot of my political beliefs have their roots in growing up in Murdo: from a belief that government should be limited \u2013 and that if a matter can be handled at the state or local level, it should be \u2013 to my understanding of the importance of freedom, and the individual responsibility that comes with the freedoms that we enjoy.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m grateful every day, Mr. President, for the blessings of growing up in a small town, and in small-town South Dakota.\n\n\u201cAnd I am proud to be a son of Murdo.\u201d", 1, "2026-07-24T07:30:11Z", "2026-07-24T07:31:13Z"]], "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-reflects-on-his-south-dakota-roots-and-values-that-shaped-him/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7729060016572475, "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"}