They finally have the votes. Now the real fight begins.
The SAVE Act already cleared the House in a tight 218–213 vote, with just one Democrat, Henry Cuellar, willing to break with his party and support basic election safeguards. That tells you everything you need to know about where Democrats really stand on election integrity.
Senate Republicans also just locked down the 50 votes they need to move ahead on the SAVE Act, thanks to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) finally jumping off the fence and signing on as a cosponsor. With Vice President JD Vance ready to break a 50–50 tie, Republicans now have the votes to pass the bill if it ever reaches a final vote. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that Democrats still have one powerful weapon left: the filibuster.
In the Senate, the math is brutally simple. Republicans have the votes to pass the bill, but they do not have the 60 votes needed to break the filibuster. Not even Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) will support the SAVE Act — and he claims to support voter ID.
So what’s the next move?
Well, that’s up to the Senate GOP leadership. If they are serious about this bill, they have to force a real, old-school, stand-on-the-floor-and-talk-until-you-drop filibuster. Not the fake Cory Booker kind, either, but a real filibuster. It's time for the Democrats' abuse of the filibuster, effectively turning it into a de facto veto of the minority party, to be over.
Sen. Mike Lee laid out the path in a video message on X.
"If senators want to debate this, if they want to filibuster it, make them work for it,” he said. “Make them stand up, make them speak. If we do it this way, we can continue this progress, and I think we can get this thing done.”
The only problem is that even then, nothing is guaranteed. A talking filibuster is a tool, not a magic wand. It forces a showdown. It does not promise victory.
“Look, there are no guarantees here,” Lee conceded. “But the only shot we've got at this is through the talking filibuster. Thanks for fighting. Keep going. We'll get it done.”
What’s next now that we have enough votes to pass the motion to proceed to the House-passed SAVE America Act?
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) February 13, 2026
In a nutshell, we now need to convince Senate Republicans to ditch the Zombie Filibuster & enforce the Talking Filibuster on this bill! https://t.co/WsNZfFJUrQ pic.twitter.com/TOiT3gYYuB
There is, of course, a backup plan. On Friday, President Donald Trump announced that if the SAVE Act can’t pass the Senate, he plans to bypass Congress altogether and use executive action to require voter ID for the November midterms. “There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!” he wrote on Truth Social.
ICYMI: Even CNN Admits That Democrats Are in Big Trouble
"This is an issue that must be fought, and must be fought, NOW!" he wrote in a follow-up post. "If we can't get it through Congress, there are Legal reasons why this SCAM is not permitted. I will be presenting them shortly, in the form of an Executive Order."
An executive order would not be ideal, but I’m hoping it won’t be necessary.
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