Vice President JD Vance assured reporters on Wednesday that Republicans will accept the results of the midterm elections in November even if Congress doesn’t pass sweeping legislation to enact proof-of-citizenship and voter ID requirements.
Vance met with House Republicans for a closed-door meeting on Wednesday to lobby for the party’s third budget reconciliation package, which GOP leaders hope to use to advance some portions of the SAVE America Act. But the reality of enacting changes to how elections are administered is becoming less likely with less than four months until Election Day.
Still, Vance says Republicans will “support the results of the midterm elections” even if control of Congress shifts out of their favor.
“We think we’re going to win, but ultimately that’s up to the American people,” Vance said after the meeting.
Vance’s comments come in contrast to President Donald Trump’s previous warnings that Republicans will “never win another Election” if the SAVE America Act isn’t passed before November. The president has called on Republicans to exhaust all options when it comes to passing the election reform bill, which has stalled in the Senate due to the 60-vote filibuster — something Trump has urged Republicans to terminate.
“Anybody who doesn’t want to Terminate the Filibuster is a FOOL, a very stupid one, at that!” Trump wrote in a social media post in June. “The Republican Party will never win another Election. I will, sadly, be the last Republican President. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Senate, must not let this ‘carnage’ happen. They will go down on the wrong side of History, as will all Republicans who just stood by and watched.”
Although Vance vowed to accept the midterm results, he echoed Trump’s calls to pass the SAVE America Act — whether through the budget resolution or as a standalone bill.
“We have to do everything that we can to discourage cheating,” Vance said. “You will hear Democrats sometimes say — and I love this line, I can’t help but laugh at it — ‘Cheating isn’t that frequent in American elections.’ Any frequency at all is a problem. A single ballot cast illegally in an American election is, in fact the theft of the ballot from another American citizen, from an American citizen who deserves to be able to vote.”
It’s becoming more likely the SAVE America Act will not pass in time to be enacted nationwide before the midterm elections. Federal law dictates any changes to voter rolls, which is also covered in the legislation to remove ineligible voters, must be done 90 days before an election. That deadline would come the first week of August.
Meanwhile, several states have already begun the process of registering voters and processing ballots for the November races — making it unlikely the sweeping changes that Trump and other Republicans want can be implemented before Election Day.