Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee has had enough.
He says that's it, blow up the filibuster.
Readers who are familiar with Lee know he usually comes across as one of the more level-headed members of the Senate conference, and is not usually someone to go off on a hot-headed rant full of profanity or namecalling when he's passionate about an issue or piece of legislation. Yet, here was his post on Friday:
I have seen enough, and heard enough excuses. We cannot let Democrats sabotage this country.
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) April 17, 2026
If nuking the filibuster is the only way to deliver on wildly popular legislation like the SAVE America Act, then we need to nuke the filibuster and start passing bills.
Now, what would push a congresscritter like Senator Lee to say "I've seen enough"? That we need to "nuke" the filibuster? We must hop in the metaphorical time machine for a brief trip to earlier in 2026, when senators were debating the full funding of the federal government, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In the mix was the Utahn politician's bill to safeguard our elections in the upper chamber, the SAVE (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) America Act.
As I wrote in March, during that conversation, Sen. Lee laid bare the crux of the Democrat Party's argument on fighting against requiring voter ID - they only want to keep up the fraudulent voting, since that benefits their candidates time and time again. They also, he said, must change the definition of the word "disenfranchised" to push their case on everyone. I encourage you to watch the whole thing and/or read the transcription of many of his points about our Constitution in the link below.
Then a few people might recall, near the end of March, when the U.S. Senate chose to go on Easter break instead of pass the agenda Americans voted for in 2024. I wrote:
As you can imagine, more than a few Republicans in the House (and Senate), among others, were rubbed the wrong way by the last minute move from Leader John Thune and the caucus in the upper chamber, and they raised their voices on X to let them know it.
As I pointed out, one of those who was not about to give up on convincing Dems about the SAVE America Act's rightness was - you guessed it - Lee, who asked Democrat CO Sen. John Hickenlooper in an X post:
Will you change your mind if I can convince you that you’ve been misinformed about the SAVE America Act? https://t.co/yQkmfRZt9l
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) March 28, 2026
He added in another post his agreement with other Conservatives on the pathway he thought Congress needed to follow at the time:
Reconvene the Senate
Now
Fund DHS
In full
Then pass SAVE America—by making filibustering senators speak
Hot Takes: Senators Taking off on Easter Break Is Rubbing House Republicans, Others the Wrong Way
Kudos to Lee for standing up when others did not have the courage to.
My colleague Ward Clark has also written about scraping the Senatorial relic of the filibuster in a recent column. Let's get 'er done, he said.
READ MORE: It's Time Senate Republicans Cross the Rubicon and End the Filibuster
WATCH: Sen. Mike Lee Lauds the Founders' Intent to Rein in Big Gov't on Constitution Day
I'll end with a thought on Sen. Lee's argument for ending the filibuster, and passing SAVE America Act. He's right. Requiring everyone who is eligible to vote in our nation's elections is a winner with most Americans, and the gridlock will not end until we come to terms with this blockade by unserious and intransigent (will find better word at some point, but it's what I have!) Democrats. As I said, this is a BFD, as someone once said, considering how level-headed Lee usually is. He is not one to fly off the handle; this just adds to the credibility of the argument now.
This needs to happen.
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