An internal fight over the Senate filibuster and sweeping election reforms is spilling into public view — and Utah Sen. Mike Lee is right at the center of it.
The Utah senator has posted dozens of times over the last two weeks demanding the Senate consider the SAVE America Act, Lee’s election reform bill that has stalled due to its inability to overcome the 60-vote filibuster. Lee has argued the bill could pass simply by wearing down Democrats in a marathon debate session — but top Republican leaders are asking Lee to drop the issue altogether.
“He feels strongly about it, and I appreciate that, and it’s his prerogative to communicate how he wants to communicate,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Tuesday. “But at the end of the day, I have to deal with reality, and sometimes, the alternative universe that is X doesn’t reflect the facts on the ground.”
Lee has posted for months that the Senate should make the SAVE America Act the sole pending business, a tactic Republicans attempted earlier this year but to no avail. Now, Lee wants to try again, and he’s hoping to get backup from the party’s leader: President Donald Trump.
Trump to visit Senate on Wednesday
Trump will huddle with Senate Republicans in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, during which the president is expected to talk about the SAVE America Act — which the president has previously said should be Republicans’ top priority.
Thune learned about the meeting after Trump was invited by Florida Sen. Rick Scott, an original co-sponsor of the SAVE America Act. But the top Senate Republican is hoping some of his colleagues can help deliver the message that the election reform bill is no longer viable.
“The facts on the ground are very clear. There are not the votes to nuke the filibuster, and there aren’t going to be 10 Democrat votes to all of a sudden support the SAVE America Act,” Thune said. “Those are just hard realities, and I think people at some point have to come to grips with that.”
Lee, meanwhile, has shown no signs of giving up. And he even went so far as to directly respond to Thune on social media after the Senate leader posted a video of his speech lauding Republicans’ affordability legislation.
“Cool. Let’s pass the SAVE America Act now,” Lee said in a post. “As I’ve been asking you to do for months, please bring it up now and announce that we will debate it until it passes.”
The post marked the most direct criticism lobbed toward Thune by Lee so far — and it comes as other Senate Republicans criticize the Utah senator for threatening to divide the party.
“I think Mike Lee is contributing to this fantasy that somehow it’s going to happen,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said on Monday. “I’ve been around here long enough and been through enough battles and counted enough votes to know that it doesn’t just magically occur.”
Other senators were more direct, claiming they were unsure if Lee is unleashing his crusade for social media attention.
“I never speak ill of members when they want to be professional and they want to engage in a productive way,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said. “But when you do some of the (expletive) he’s done on social media, that’s why he gets these comments out here.”
Meanwhile, there are a number of Republicans in the House who are cheering Lee on from the other side of the Capitol complex. At least 25 House Republicans, including Utah Rep. Burgess Owens, have signed a petition vowing not to support any Senate-passed bill until the SAVE America Act is approved.
“The Senate cannot keep obstructing President Trump’s agenda while ignoring election integrity,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said in a post on X. “I call on my fellow colleagues to stand firm and honor their pledge.”