Thune criss­cross­es coun­try to pad Sen­ate GOP war chests

Sen. John Thune (R‑SD) is return­ing to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., on Mon­day fol­low­ing a whirl­wind trip through two Sen­ate bat­tle­grounds.
On Fri­day, he trav­eled to Neva­da to fundraise for Army vet­er­an Sam Brown, the estab­lish­ment pick to chal­lenge Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen. Jacky Rosen (NV) in the fall. Thune spent the next two days in Mon­tana to sup­port Repub­li­can busi­ness­man Tim Shee­hy, who is expect­ed to advance in Tuesday’s GOP pri­ma­ry for Sen. Jon Tester’s (D‑MT) seat.
The trip, first report­ed by the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er, is part of a con­fer­ence-wide piv­ot to the gen­er­al elec­tion with just five months until Nov. 5. Repub­li­cans have a favor­able Sen­ate map, but Thune and oth­er par­ty lead­ers are help­ing bridge what each cycle’s fundrais­ing gap is against the Democ­rats.
“This is a make-or-break moment, real­ly, for the coun­try an …