Schumer's Unwinnable War: Why He's Fighting Anyways

Today, the Senate will vote on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s proposed legislation that would result in a federal takeover of elections. Senator Schumer is threatening to eliminate the filibuster if the voting legislation is not passed. So far, two U.S. Senators are blocking his desire to change those Senate rules. Senator Joe Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema have expressed their opposition to getting rid of the filibuster thus far.

Senator Schumer threatened to move forward on changing the rules if he doesn’t get his way:

"If the Senate cannot protect the right to vote which is the cornerstone of our democracy, then the rules must be reformed. . . . If the Republicans block cloture on the legislation before us, I will put forward a proposal to change the rules to allow for a talking filibuster."

Senator Manchin expressed his view last night on eliminating the traditional filibuster:

"The majority of my colleagues in the Democrat caucus, they changed. They change their minds. I respect that. You have a right to change your mind. I haven’t. I hope they respect that too. I’ve never changed my mind on the filibuster."

ACLJ Director of Government Affairs Thann Bennett predicted how this will turn out:

"I think this effort by leader Schumer is destined to fail. I think he is going to push it over the cliff anyway. I think he is doing it to pander . . . to the left side of his base and his caucus. Here’s what is going to happen, the vote on cloture to wrap up debate on this bill is . . . going to take place at 6:30 pm. Republicans, if they wanted to, could push that until tomorrow, but this is kind of evidence they aren’t obstructing anything here. They are saying look if 60 Senators agree to wrap up debate, then we can wrap up debate. That vote will take place at 6:30 pm. They need 60 votes to clear that hurdle. It will certainly fail. I would expect Manchin and Sinema and all of the Democrats to vote in favor of it. So, you might get to about 50 votes. But it won’t get to the 60. That is when we expect leader Schumer to try to nuke the filibuster. . . . It really boils down to this – he wants to use a simple majority of the Senate to do away with the legislative filibuster and to force this legislation through. It is not expected that he is going to succeed; he will fail, but he will push the Senate to the brink anyway."

Thann added why he thinks Senator Schumer insists on going through with this knowing the vote will likely fail:

"I’m really left with just really two things. One, I do think he is fearful of a primary specifically from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. . . . The dates for filing are coming up this Spring, that primary is in June. I think he is legitimately politically fearful about that. . . . The second thing is I think there is such desperation for a win from the Biden Administration that even a loss trying to do what they perceive their base wanting is seen as a lesser of evils between just walking away and admitting defeat. . . . I think that’s what they have come to. They have lost on so many things in a row, they don’t want to walk away without trying, so they are going to take this vote. But look, it is always about the numbers in D.C. and if you’re going to alienate two more of your United States Senators in a 50-50 caucus, heading into a midterm election, to me that is pretty short-sided."

However, even though Senator Schumer’s plot to take over elections will most likely fail, it is not over yet. We will continue to monitor this vote at the Senate tonight and provide you with updates.