Republican voter ID bill stalls in Senate despite Trump demands
[February 27, 2026]
By MARY CLARE JALONICK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Election-year legislation to impose strict new
proof-of-citizenship requirements on voting appears stalled in the
Senate, for now, despite President Donald Trump’s call in his State of
the Union speech that Republicans in Congress pass the bill “before
anything else.”
Trump’s push for the bill, backed by House conservatives and his most
loyal supporters ahead of the midterm elections, has put new pressure on
Senate Majority Leader John Thune as he tries to navigate an effort from
inside and outside Congress to bypass normal Senate procedure. Thune has
said he supports the legislation and that his GOP conference is still
discussing how to pass it.
Senate Republicans “aren’t unified on an approach,” Thune said on
Wednesday after Trump's speech.
In an effort to get around Democratic opposition, Trump and others have
pushed a so-called “talking filibuster,” which would bring the Senate
back to the days of the movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” when
senators talked indefinitely to block legislation. Today, the Senate
mostly skips the speeches and votes to end debate, which takes 60 votes
in the Senate where Republicans have a 53-47 majority.
Republicans wouldn’t have to change the rules to force a talkathon. They
could simply keep the Senate open and make Democrats deliver speeches
for days or weeks to delay taking up the legislation. But Thune would
still need enough support from his caucus to move forward with that
approach, and he said this week that “we aren’t there yet.”
The tension has put the affable, well-liked Thune in a tough spot with
Trump and many of his voters who argue that the legislation is necessary
for a GOP victory in the midterm elections. Trump has already made clear
that he will blame Democrats, and potentially Thune, if they lose their
majorities in Congress in November — even though Republicans won control
of Congress and the White House in 2024 without the bill's requirements.
Democrats oppose the bill because “they want to cheat,” Trump claimed in
his speech on Tuesday.
“We have to stop it, John,” Trump said, calling out Thune by name.
Complicated and risky maneuver
Trump and his supporters, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, say the talking
filibuster would allow them to pass the legislation — called the
Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act — without any
Democratic votes. But the maneuver could end up creating more problems
for Republicans.
Under a talking filibuster, Democrats would have to stay on the floor
and give speeches for an indefinite amount of time to block the bill.
Each senator is only allowed two speeches on a particular piece of
legislation, so the idea is that Democrats would eventually run out of
speeches or quit due to exhaustion, allowing Republicans to proceed with
a simple majority vote.
“We won’t pass the SAVE America Act unless we start by making
filibustering senators speak,” Lee said on social media. "This will take
time and effort, but we’d be crazy not to give it the effort it
deserves.”
The reality on the floor would be more complicated. Democrats would be
able to throw up procedural roadblocks, including restarting the clock
for speeches if enough Republicans weren’t also present on the floor.
That means nearly all 53 Republicans would need to remain close to the
Senate during the filibuster, while only one Democrat would have to keep
speaking. The process could last for weeks, given that there are 47
Democrats in the Senate.
Even if Republicans managed to break the first filibuster, Democrats
could then offer an unlimited number of amendments on anything they
wish, forcing Republicans to take hard votes in an election year and
potentially adding some of their own priorities to the legislation if
they have some bipartisan support. Each amendment would bring a new
round of speeches as well.
“We’d have to have 50 to defeat every amendment,” Thune said. “And
that’s not a where we are right now.”
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Republican concerns
As Thune has discussed the possibility with his conference in recent
weeks, some Republicans have expressed worry that the process could
lead to rules changes that could lead the Senate to “go nuclear” and
eventually vote to erode the legislative filibuster.
Most Senate Republicans have said they do not want to lower the
60-vote threshold for ending debate on legislation, even though it
has been lowered for presidential and judicial nominations.
“I agree with the SAVE Act,” Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said
after Trump’s speech. “But I’m not going to nuke the filibuster.”
Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, said that “the reason or method doesn’t
matter — it’s breaking the filibuster.”
Other Republicans could also block the process. Republican Sen. Lisa
Murkowski of Alaska has said she opposes the SAVE Act, and Kentucky
Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former GOP majority leader, has opposed
similar legislation in the past.
GOP senators who support the maneuver were also realistic about the
difficulty of the talking filibuster approach.
“You’d have to have a deep commitment among almost all of our
members,” said Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, who supports it.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., called it “hard but doable.”
GOP election strategy
The voting bill would require Americans to prove they are citizens
when they register to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or
birth certificate. It would also require a valid photo
identification before voters can cast ballots, which some states
already demand. The House approved it earlier this month on a mostly
party-line vote, 218-213.
Republicans said the legislation is needed to prevent voter fraud,
but Democrats warn it will disenfranchise millions of Americans by
making it harder to vote. Voting experts have warned that more than
20 million U.S. citizens of voting age do not have proof of their
citizenship readily available, and almost half of Americans do not
have a U.S. passport. Critics also said the bill’s enactment could
cause chaos in this year’s elections and confuse voters because some
of it would take effect immediately.
Federal law already requires that voters in national elections be
U.S. citizens, but there’s no requirement to provide documentary
proof when registering, though they do affirm under oath at the risk
of prosecution that they are eligible.
Experts said voter fraud is extremely rare, and very few noncitizens
ever slip through the cracks. About one in 10 Americans doesn’t have
readily available paperwork proving they are citizens.
The legislation also would require states to share their voter
information with the Department of Homeland Security as a way to
verify the citizenship of the names on the voter rolls. That has
drawn pushback from elections officials, including some Republicans,
as potentially intrusive on people’s privacy.
Trump said in his speech on Tuesday that the bill would be
“country-saving.”
Echoing his false claims of voter fraud when he lost the 2020
election, Trump said that Democrats “want to cheat, they have
cheated, and their policy is so bad that the only way they can get
elected is to cheat.”
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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Matt Brown in Washington
contributed to this report.
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