The Fight Over Proof Of Citizenship To Vote Reaches Boiling Point

The effort to get the SAVE America Act to President Donald Trump’s desk intensified on Wednesday, when Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) released an op-ed highlighting that he would back “whatever changes to Senate rules” were deemed necessary in order to pass the bill.

Cornyn’s op-ed comes as he and Attorney General Ken Paxton are battling for Trump’s endorsement in the heated Texas Republican Senate primary that is already headed to a May 26 runoff election.

The president has said that the SAVE America Act is his top legislative priority, even vowing not to sign any other legislation until he sees it on his desk, and some Republicans have suggested using the “talking filibuster” — or ending the filibuster altogether — in order to get around Democratic obstruction. The measure would require documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration and voter ID at the ballot box.

“For many years, I believed that if the U.S. Senate scrapped the filibuster, Texas and our nation would stand to lose more than we would gain,” Cornyn wrote in his op-ed for the New York Post.

“My fellow conservatives and I have proudly used the 60-vote threshold to protect the country from all sorts of bad ideas and dangerous policies,” he added, saying that “when the reality on the ground changes, leaders must take stock and adapt.”

“Today, Democrats are weaponizing the Senate’s rules to block the SAVE America Act, defund the Department of Homeland Security and hurt the American people — all to spite President Donald Trump. But they say openly that if these same rules ever get in Democrats’ way, they won’t hesitate to rip them up,” he said, noting how many Democrats have sought to get rid of the filibuster in the past.

Critics of using a “talking filibuster” — or ending the practice altogether — have warned that it could open the floodgates to certain legislative proposals that the Democrats, and perhaps a small number of Republicans, could pass.

“A lot of that is, it’s in that kind of, you know, paid influencer ecosystem,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told NBC News on Monday.

“What people don’t realize, I think, is that’s unlimited debate but it’s also unlimited amendments,” Thune has previously warned, according to The Hill.

Attorney General Ken Paxton used Cornyn’s op-ed as an opportunity to attack the incumbent senator, reminding everyone that he had posted on X one week prior that he “would consider dropping out of this race if Senate Leadership agrees to lift the filibuster and passes the SAVE America Act.”

“John Cornyn did exactly what I predicted. In one week, I’ve made him more conservative than in the past 24 years,” Paxton posted Wednesday. “The historic flip-flop’s great and all, but why aren’t you calling out your buddies like McConnell opposing the bill? Tell the American people who’s opposing this.”

The Republican primary has taken a strikingly personal tone as the runoff approaches, with the Cornyn campaign releasing a commercial on Friday regarding Paxton’s personal scandals and accusing the sitting attorney general of breaking several of the Ten Commandments.

Democrats have begun coalescing around state Sen. James Talarico, who defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the primary last week — but according to the Cook Political Report, the general election race still skews “Likely Republican.”