WASHINGTON ― Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) ― two of the most vocal defenders of the filibuster in the Senate ― won’t be around next year. Mitch McConnell, another staunch supporter of the filibuster, is leaving GOP leadership at the end of the year, and he may not be around the Capitol much longer either.
The rapidly changing makeup of the Senate, where much of the old guard is being replaced with newcomers who don’t see much sense in some of the chamber’s longstanding traditions, is giving hope to advocates of eliminating the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation.
“This institution would be better off if the filibuster wasn’t used in the way it is today. … It certainly feels like the momentum is heading towards a reform of the filibuster,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who has been involved in both successful and not-so-successful bipartisan negotiations gun control and immigration reform, told HuffPost on Wednesday.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a vocal critic of the filibuster, said it had been used recently by Republicans to prevent passage of legislation to protect abortion rights and voting rights.
“The filibuster is a way to empower the minority,” Warren said. “People are sick of hearing that we’d like to make changes that are popular all across this country — changes in access to abortion, to gun safety, to support for access to abortion — but that somehow, the minority blocked us.”
She added: “The filibuster needs to go.”
Ahead of the 2022 midterms, Democrats tried to change Senate rules to exempt legislation expanding access to voting and bolstering the 1965 Voting Rights Act from the filibuster.
But Sinema and Manchin, then two of the most conservative Democrats in the chamber, joined every Republican in voting to oppose the rules change, handing their party a stinging defeat.
Manchin complained at the time that his fellow Democrats wanted to “break the rules to change the rules.” Sinema, who later left the party entirely, argued the filibuster forced compromise and tempered extremism on both sides of the aisle, winning her widespread praise from the right.
In a tribute to her time in the Senate this week, McConnell credited Sinema for rejecting pressure from her party to change the filibuster rules. (McConnell himself defended the filibuster from similar pressure, when when former President Donald Trump urged Republicans to ditch the filibuster in order to repeal the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.)
“The institution of the Senate is only as strong as the people willing to defend it,” McConnell said in a statement on Tuesday. “History will remember that with the Senate’s defining feature under grave threat, Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s wisdom and devotion to this body rivaled that of her most seasoned colleagues.”
It’s not clear if McConnell’s absence from GOP leadership next year ― he has said he intends to serve out the remaining two years of his term, albeit not as leader ― will change much in terms of support for the filibuster in his party. If they win back the Senate in 2024, but only barely, Republicans could once again face calls from Trump and his allies to nix the filibuster to pass their priorities — including, for example, a ban on abortion after 15 weeks.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who is also retiring at the end of this year, said he is “virtually certain” that the rule will endure in the future.
“I think there are quite a few Republican senators who recognize the significance of the 60-vote rule for the institution of the Senate and would not vote to eliminate it,” Romney told HuffPost.
“It doesn’t take doesn’t take 20 or 30 or 40 [senators]” to protect the filibuster, he added. “It takes, you know, depending on the majority of Republicans have in the Senate, maybe two or three.”
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) reiterated that he was open to eliminating the filibuster on Wednesday, though he didn’t commit to killing it.
“I’ve always said that when people attempt ― courts or legislators ― to take away voting rights, particularly the most disenfranchised people, we have an obligation to do everything we can to restore those voting rights,” Schumer said.
