Democrats Reveal When They’d Kill the Filibuster — Just Not for Election Integrity

Clear Facts

• President Trump is pushing to eliminate the Senate filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act, which includes voter ID requirements and other election integrity measures
• Democratic senators admit they support eliminating the filibuster for certain legislation, but oppose doing so for the SAVE Act
• Republicans point out that Democrats previously voted to end the filibuster when they held the majority and wanted to pass their own voting legislation

As President Donald Trump intensifies his push to eliminate the Senate filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act, lawmakers are exposing the double standard over when the chamber’s 60-vote rule should apply.

Democratic senators carefully avoided endorsing an outright elimination of the filibuster. However, several defended exceptions for certain legislation — just not for Republican priorities like election integrity.

“I would want to know what specific measure it covered,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., admitted. “I’m in favor of eliminating the filibuster for specific measures, not across the board.”

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was even more revealing about the partisan calculus.

“When we wanted the Voting Rights Act passed, I was willing to do it,” Cantwell said, referring to Democratic voting legislation.

“It depends on constitutional issues,” she added. “If there are people that are overriding the Constitution and not following the Constitution, that would be an area where I would think about [eliminating the filibuster.]”

Democrats previously pushed to create exceptions to the filibuster for their own voting rights bills after Republicans blocked those measures during President Joe Biden’s administration. Now that Republicans control the Senate and want to pass voter ID requirements, Democrats suddenly rediscovered their appreciation for the 60-vote threshold.

As the SAVE Act stalls in the Senate, Trump has repeatedly urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster to pass the election integrity bill. The legislation would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

“I think we have to be really careful,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said. “The filibuster is what’s preventing President Trump from his SAVE Act.”

Trump took to Truth Social urging Thune not to allow the Senate to leave for August recess until lawmakers either pass the SAVE Act or terminate the filibuster. He also insisted that Senate Democrats would eliminate it to advance their own legislation if they regained the majority.

“I think that the Democrats would absolutely eliminate the filibuster,” Sen. Roger Marshall said. “Every Democrat senator that’s here now, that was here when they had the chance, voted to end it.”

Marshall explained that his position has evolved on this issue, with him now supporting elimination of the filibuster as the Democratic party has become unwilling to cooperate on common-sense election security measures.

“Democrats don’t want to cooperate,” Marshall said.

“They want to do everything they can to make life miserable in America, thinking it’s going to help them politically. Always putting their political goals ahead of what’s best for America.”

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., acknowledged the reality that Thune has explained to the president: the votes in the upper chamber are not currently there to remove the filibuster, even among Republicans.

“[Trump] knows the votes aren’t there to do what he wants to do, in the way he wants to do it,” Kennedy said. “The House has passed a budget resolution to get reconciliation started. We can pass the SAVE Act with the right… the correctly crafted bill.”

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is working to craft legislation that would pass certain elements of the SAVE Act through the budget reconciliation process — dropping the need for Senate Democrats to vote in favor of the bill to get it passed to Trump’s desk.

“There comes a time when you got to stop talking and just vote,” Kennedy said.

“I’m ready to vote, and I’m gonna vote yes. And I’ll stay here as long into August or September as I need to for us to get our work done.”

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