{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=E4A36108-0DD1-4E8F-9AF3-F2E6C5518FB8", "Thune Honors Longtime Chief of Staff Ryan Nelson", "2024-12-18", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today honored his longtime chief of staff, Ryan Nelson, and thanked him for 28 years of dedicated service to the U.S. Senate and the people of South Dakota.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201cMr. President, I come to the floor today to pay tribute to my longtime chief of staff, Ryan Nelson, who has decided to step down in the new year.\n\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s difficult to know where to start to pay tribute to a man who has been indispensable to everything I have ever done in Congress.\n\n\u201cSo perhaps I should start at the beginning, back in 1996 during the Republican primary for South Dakota\u2019s lone House seat.\n\n\u201cI was a green candidate running on a shoestring budget.\n\n\u201cAnd one morning a campaign volunteer showed up at my door and announced that he was my driver.\n\n\u201cHis name was Ryan Nelson.\n\n\u201cThat day we headed to an event in Arlington, South Dakota.\n\n\u201cAnd unbeknownst to me, my new driver proceeded to lock his keys in the car.\n\n\u201cNow, this might have caused some campaign volunteers to panic.\n\n\u201cBut not Ryan.\n\n\u201cHe made his way over to a filling station, found someone who could get into the car, and retrieved the keys \u2013 all without my knowing that anything had ever happened.\n\n\u201cWell, that resourcefulness turned out to be a pretty good indicator of what was to come.\n\n\u201cNot the locking the keys in the car part, but the seeing a problem and solving it before I had even had a chance to become aware of it.\n\n\u201cWell, Ryan kept driving me around the state, and we ended up winning the primary.\n\n\u201cAnd Ryan came to a crossroads \u2013 both metaphorical and literal.\n\n\u201cYou see, Ryan was originally just filling time on the campaign.\n\n\u201cHe was scheduled to leave for the Kansas City police academy the day after the primary.\n\n\u201cAnd he was driving out of his hometown of Gettysburg, South Dakota, when he came to that literal crossroads.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019d have to go one way for the police academy, and the other way to stay with the campaign.\n\n\u201cHe chose to stay with the campaign.\n\n\u201cAnd among the many blessings I\u2019ve been given over the course of my career, I have to count that as one of the greatest.\n\n\u201cRyan has now been with my team for 28 years.\n\n\u201cHe has helped build my staff and guide my operations, mentored generations of Thune employees, and been a constant source of insight and wisdom.\n\n\u201cThere is no one that I trust more.\n\n\u201cRyan\u2019s knowledge is deep and broad.\n\n\u201cHe has an intuitive understanding of politics and an encyclopedic knowledge of South Dakota, and he is deeply connected to the needs of our state.\n\n\u201cI have relied on those qualities throughout my career.\n\n\u201cAnd not just on those qualities, but on his character.\n\n\u201cRyan is someone who got into politics for all the right reasons.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s not interested in personal glory \u2013 in fact, I think everyone who knows Ryan would agree that there is no one who more persistently dodges the spotlight!\n\n\u201cHe got into politics to serve.\n\n\u201cHe cares about our state, and he cares about our country.\n\n\u201cAnd he has done everything he can throughout his career to ensure a brighter future for both.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I suppose Ryan is technically my employee \u2013 for a few more days, at least.\n\n\u201cBut that\u2019s not a word I think of when I think of Ryan.\n\n\u201cI think of words like ally, partner, and friend \u2013 and not just to me, but to my whole family.\n\n\u201cRyan has cared as deeply for the wellbeing of my wife Kimberley and of our daughters Brittany and Larissa as he has for mine.\n\n\u201cWhen I think back to long days on the campaign trail when our family was young, I think of Ryan joking with the girls, jollying them along and keeping an eye out for when they needed a break.\n\n\u201cThe long days on the trail used to sometimes wear on my younger daughter Larissa especially, and Ryan used to keep up her spirits by promising her her favorite chicken Alfredo at the end of the day.\n\n\u201cAnd of course, being Ryan, he never failed to deliver.\n\n\u201cIn fact, \u2018Chicken Alfredo\u2019 is still a family joke.\n\n\u201cI know some of my daughters\u2019 favorite memories are of days spent with Ryan and his wife Carmen \u2013 on the campaign trail or at the lodge then run by Ryan\u2019s dad.\n\n\u201cWe used to regularly spend time there as a family, and the girls loved nothing more.\n\n\u201cDoing puzzles, watching movies, riding on the four-wheelers, hunting \u2026 and then all gathering for a good meal at the end of the day.\n\n\u201cRyan always made sure the girls\u2019 favorites were on the menu.\n\n\u201cOf course, as devoted as Ryan has been to the Thune family, his greatest devotion is to his own family \u2013 to Carmen and to their sons Parker and Mitchell.\n\n\u201cWhen I decided to run for leader this year, he said that he would do everything he could to help, as he always has \u2013 but that he wouldn\u2019t miss his son\u2019s football games.\n\n\u201cAnd he hasn\u2019t.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m fairly sure that he has only missed one of his sons\u2019 games in all the time they\u2019ve played.\n\n\u201cAnd while it\u2019s hard to think of his not being my chief of staff, I\u2019m happy that he will have more time to spend with Carmen and with their boys.\n\n\u201cMr. President, there\u2019s so much more that I could say about Ryan.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard to give a speech about him without mentioning his love of football.\n\n\u201cBetween his own days as a standout high school and college player and his sons\u2019 time playing the game, Ryan brings a wealth of football knowledge to the table.\n\n\u201cAnd then there is his dry sense of humor \u2013 and love of a prank or two.\n\n\u201cHis deep faith.\n\n\u201cHis loyalty.\n\n\u201cAnd his work ethic.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to believe that his time in my office is drawing to a close.\n\n\u201cThe Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4 that, I quote, \u2018it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd there is no one who has been more faithful to his trust than Ryan Nelson.\n\n\u201cI am more grateful than I can ever say for his service.\n\n\u201cAnd I pray that God will richly bless him and his family in the new days ahead.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I yield the floor.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "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/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=E4A36108-0DD1-4E8F-9AF3-F2E6C5518FB8"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 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