Hawley Erupts After Four GOP Senators Join Democrats on Voter ID Vote

Clear Facts

• Four Republican senators—Collins, Murkowski, McConnell, and Tillis—voted with Democrats to block the SAVE Act from the Senate reconciliation package
• The SAVE Act would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration and photo ID at the polls in federal elections
• 37 states already have voter ID laws in place, including several blue states

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., didn’t hold back his frustration after watching four Republicans hand Democrats a victory on election integrity. During Thursday’s vote-a-rama, the Missouri senator criticized colleagues who blocked an effort to attach the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act to the GOP’s budget reconciliation package.

“You can’t explain it to me why you wouldn’t vote for voter ID,” Hawley told reporters, his exasperation evident.

Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina joined every Democrat to defeat the amendment that would have brought election-integrity measures into the roughly $70 billion border security package funding ICE and Border Patrol.

“I guess it’s frustration,” Hawley told Fox News Digital. “Listen, we’ve been doing this in Missouri for years. I mean voters in my state put it in our constitution.”

“Voter ID is the most popular thing out there,” he continued. “There’s a reason for that. People want their elections to be safe, they want them to be fair. And to me, you can’t explain it to me, why you wouldn’t vote for voter ID. I just don’t understand it.”

The four Republican defections marked yet another failure to pass legislation that party leaders have spent months promoting as critical to election security. The defeat came despite widespread public support for voter identification requirements.

The dissenting senators argued that voter ID laws should remain a state-level decision without federal interference. Hawley rejected that reasoning outright, pointing to Congress’s long history of regulating federal elections.

“We make federal rules all the time for elections, you know,” Hawley said. “I mean all the time we do. And there’s nothing more basic than protecting the integrity of the ballot and that’s what this is about.”

Congress has indeed enacted numerous election-related laws over the years. The bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, which revised procedures for certifying presidential election results, stands as recent proof of federal involvement in election administration.

The SAVE Act would require applicants to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. It would also mandate that voters present photo identification when casting ballots in federal elections—straightforward requirements that mirror what most states already do.

“37 states have voter ID already including several blue states,” Hawley said, dismantling the states’-rights argument. “So I think this idea that this is like ‘this is weird, this is exotic, this is out there,’ no it’s not. Like most of our states do it.”

The senator expressed confidence that the measure will eventually become law, driven by public demand. “Sooner or later this is going to happen because I think the American people are going to demand it.”

The vote highlights a deepening divide within the Republican Party between those committed to election integrity reforms backed by the base and establishment figures willing to side with Democrats on fundamental election security measures.

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