An internal strategy document circulated this week advises GOP senators’ offices to walk a fine line on Trump’s favored voting restrictions bill.
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WASHINGTON – Senate Republican leadership is privately urging rank-and-file lawmakers and their staffers to throw cold water on the prospect of passing President Donald Trump’s voting restrictions bill anytime soon, according to an internal strategy memo obtained by USA TODAY.
The messaging document, which was circulated by the Senate Republican Conference this week, advises senators’ offices to tell reporters there isn’t enough support in the chamber to pass the SAVE America Act. It also urges them to rebuff the president’s demand that Republicans abolish the legislative filibuster, the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
“I want to pass the SAVE America Act just as much as the President, but we don’t have the votes to pass the SAVE America Act or eliminate the filibuster,” one of the proposed talking points for GOP senators says. “If staying in session will somehow change that outcome, then I’m all for it.”
The memo goes on to encourage Republicans to point to this fall’s elections to contradict the president’s new suggestion that the Senate cancel its upcoming August recess. In a July 27 social media post, Trump said Senate Majority Leader John Thune “should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town'” until SAVE is passed or the filibuster is terminated.
“We are not going to get a single Democrat to vote for the SAVE America Act no matter how long we are in session,” another talking point says. “And we have work to do at home to make sure that we beat the Democrats in November.”
The document offers a clearer look at how leaders in the Senate GOP are trying to thread several tricky political needles just three months before the midterm elections. It also highlights the urgency Republicans are feeling to stay unified as divisions between the White House and Senate leadership grow more pronounced.
“We could stay here until the cows come home. It’s not going to change a thing,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said of passing the SAVE Act. “We keep overpromising and underdelivering, which is not a recipe for good morale or high voter participation in the midterm elections.”
The GOP’s filibuster-defending plan
When Trump again implored Senate Republicans on July 27 to abolish the filibuster, he predicted doing so would allow them to “quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of.”
Many senators, including some of the president’s stalwart GOP allies, disagree. They say the 60-vote threshold forces Republicans and Democrats to work together to pass legislation that could actually affect Americans’ lives. Ending it, in their view, would have major implications for the country, allowing any party with a simple majority in the 100-member chamber to avoid bipartisanship.
The new strategy memo counsels Republicans to give fresh warnings about the ways Democrats could take advantage of a Senate without the filibuster.
“If we eliminated the filibuster, the next Democrat majority would repeal SAVE America and stage a complete federal takeover of state elections,” the memo says. “They will make DC and Puerto Rico the 51st and 52nd states and pack the Supreme Court. They will create a permanent legislative majority and pass their radical agenda.”
Another suggested talking point says Democrats, unencumbered by the filibuster, would “tax, spend, and regulate at levels America has never seen.”
Speaking to reporters Monday, Thune said White House staffers sat down at one point with about 20 Senate Republicans to gauge support for a number of hot-button issues, including ending the filibuster and nixing the Senate’s “blue slip” process (which gives lawmakers virtual veto power over judicial nominations in their states). Fifteen senators signaled they’d be no votes, according to Thune.
Zachary Schermele is the congressional correspondent for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.