There's a fucking vacancy. What do you need, Thune to tell you? Trump? Fox News?
Vacancy is not defined in law for a Senate seat and it's not the first time this has come up.
Under the general practice and operations in the Senate and in the House, personal "incapacity" of a sitting member has not generated proceedings to declare the seat vacant. Several examples are often cited for this proposition, including the example of Senator Carter Glass of Virginia, who was apparently away from the Senate for four years before finally dying in 1946; the case of Senator Carl Mundt of South Dakota, who, after suffering a stroke in 1969, was reportedly absent from the Senate floor for almost three years prior to his decision not to run for reelection in 1972; and Representative John Grotberg of Illinois, who slipped into a five-week coma in January of 1986 from complications of cancer treatment and did not return to Congress for the rest of the session.
The House of Representatives removed a member in a coma once, but the Senate has not removed a member like this. Spellman was incapacitated before re-election, and therefore hadn't taken an oath of office for the new term.
I want to ask: What's the value in insulting people like this? Something can be "common sense" but it doesn't mean it is reflected in law. Being angry on the internet because things aren't the way you think they should be isn't going to make them better. And it's certainly no reason to lash out.