Longtime Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell is urging Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, one of his top allies in the chamber, to run for reelection next year.

“His party needs him in the Senate and the country needs him in the Senate,” McConnell told Fox News when asked about Thune, who’s mulling retirement after his current term ends.

“I hope that Sen. Thune will indeed after the holidays announce that he’s going to run for reelection,” the Senate minority leader and longtime lawmaker from Kentucky said in an interview Wednesday on Fox News’ “America Reports.”