Sounds Like the GOP Is Eager to Literally Fight Democrats in Order to Pass the Voter Suppression SAVE America Act

A bill that seems to be the manifestation of Trump’s despot dreams of voter suppression has long appeared destined to be dead on arrival in the Senate—but the GOP seems unwilling to go down without a (possibly literal) fight. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has been under pressure from Trump and fellow Republicans for months to do whatever he can to pass the SAVE America Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility). Trump even encouraged him to try to get rid of the filibuster, though Thune has repeatedly said there’s just not enough support. 

FOX: Do you run a risk of being on the wrong side of President Trump in your resistance to doing a talking filibuster?

THUNE: We don’t have the votes

FOX: Does he understand that?

THUNE: Well, we conveyed that to him, but we’ll continue to make that argument

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 10, 2026 at 7:08 PM

Instead, Republicans are opting for a spectacle. Beginning Tuesday, they’re kicking off what could become at least a week-long floor fight over the bill in order to force Democrats to defend their position. 

“How long it goes is going to be instructive because the point of this is exhausting Democrats, the point of it is pain, the point of it is forcing a public and political process and seeing what comes out of it,” a Republican strategist told The Hill. “Is this going to be a fist fight or not? How bloody is Thune going to make this?” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) also said he wants a floor fight, saying he hopes it turns into the two-month battle that took place before the Senate passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

If the very transparent bill is passed, it would require Americans to provide proof of citizenship, like a birth certificate or passport, when registering to vote. But millions of Americans either don’t have a passport (in 2024, the Brennan Center estimated more than 9%) or don’t have access to a passport or their birth certificate (really, who knows where their birth certificate is?). Last week, Trump reportedly told Republicans that the legislation would “guarantee the midterms.” Subtle! 

And yes, married women who have changed their name—or anyone who has changed their name or gender, like trans people—would have to re-register with updated identification, a fact Propaganda Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Monday.

“They just have to go through their state processes to update that documentation,” Leavitt said, calling the insinuation that people don’t have the time to go to the social security office or the DMV “frankly insulting,” and that many already do it “every day.” God, talk about someone who sounds like she never had to renew a license. 

The SAVE America Act is a new iteration of a bill that was originally introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) in May 2024, which was a then-preemptive effort to freak out about the results of the election in case Trump lost to Kamala Harris—and was rooted in the baseless claims that undocumented immigrants pose a threat to elections. At the time, it demanded that individuals sign up for voter registration to prove their citizenship. It passed the House in July 2024, with five Dems voting to approve it, but it never made it through the Senate.

The latest version, which passed the House in a 218-213 vote in February—with Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas) being the sole Dem to break party lines—not only requires voters to provide proof of their citizenship to register for voting, but it also says they must bring a photo ID to the polls. Further, it mandates states to provide their voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security, and threatens penalties on election officials who violate any of the rules. According to political experts, the SAVE America Act would be the “most restrictive voting bill ever passed.”

DON’T LET THE BANNER THROW YOU OFF

This press conference was wild. The kind that makes you sit up and realize what they are really trying to do.

This is not the “Save America Act”. It’s a backdoor attempt to make voting harder for millions of people.

Wiping out vote by mail is… pic.twitter.com/DL8jkTmBcX

— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) March 16, 2026

Over the weekend, in a Truth Social post, Trump said he would “not sign other bills until this is passed, and not the watered down version — go for the gold.” His “gold” version would include a number of additions, including an end to no-excuse mail-in voting, as well as provisions that have nothing to do with voting—like banning trans athletes from playing in sports teams aligned with their gender identity, and further blocking trans-affirming care for minors. 

Currently, 45 Senate Dems and two Independents are set to reject the SAVE America Act, leaving Thune short of the 60 votes he needs to pass it. 

Various GOP lawmakers have (unsurprisingly) been echoing Trump and outright admitting they believe it’ll change the trajectory of the midterms, in which the party’s razor-thin trifecta is at stake. “The Senate will no longer have legislation passed until the SAVE America Act is passed and on the President’s desk,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.) tweeted on Friday. “I’ve seen John Thune pull rabbits out his hat before, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) told reporters on Monday. And, in a tweet last week, Lee said: “The one thing we know with certainty is that it *won’t* pass if we don’t try. So why not give it a shot? Americans deserve nothing less.” Ah, yes, because you miss 100% of the democracy-attacking shots you don’t take. 

Thune originally wanted to bring the measure to an immediate vote, though pretty much everyone in the Senate knew it’d lead to an immediate “no.” Speaking to reporters, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) said, “There isn’t any strategy. There’s a 0% [chance] of this succeeding.” 

But if Republicans really want to bring things to a full-on fist fight, we only ask that we get in a few punches first. After all, there’s one Senator that still hasn’t accepted our invitation to a duel… 

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