Senate Minority Whip John Thune said he's talking with colleagues "to discuss the future of the Senate Republican Conference and what they would like to see in their next leader," spokesperson Joey Brown said in a statement to Politico.
"He looks forward to having substantive conversations over the next few days and weeks about the future, but he intends on keeping those conversations private," Brown said of Thune.
Thune told reporters he's "having lots of conversations with our colleagues, and so getting inside input from them about where they see the future headed and what they want out of the next Senate Republican leader. They're great conversations."
Mitch McConnell's impending exit as Senate GOP leader this fall has kicked off a succession battle, with Sen. John Cornyn R-Texas, and Thune, R-S.D., launching bids and others likely to follow.
Thune, when speaking to reporters about succeeding McConnell, emphasized his record of crafting the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, but said he hadn't spoken with former President Donald Trump about running.
"I have not talked about the race with him. I think others have, but the point I guess I would simply make is: I worked closely with him when he was president last time," Thune said. "I was one of the key negotiators in the Senate Finance Committee on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. We put through, I want to say, 154 judges when I was the whip on the floor under his administration.
"We've got a record of accomplishment of getting things done for the American people. So, as I've said before, I try to be able to work with anybody. We got people who have lots of different points of view in our conference, and part of it is being able to pull it together and effectively get results."