Outside conservative groups are putting pressure on Senate Republicans to make their floor debate exercise over the SAVE America Act last as long as possible — including the highly influential Club for Growth, which typically focuses on free enterprise and economic growth.
As the Senate this week kicks off a floor process for the voting legislation pushed by President Trump and conservative activists, the major question is how long Republicans will keep up debate, given the expectation is that they won't be able to actually pass the bill.
Club for Growth President David McIntosh told me Monday that he'd like to see the Senate pushing the bill for a month or more — saying that he hopes Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) doesn't let up any time soon.
"If Thune gives up in the next week, next couple of weeks, and doesn't at least go four or five or six weeks to be able to really force a robust debate, and to the point where it's just clear the Democrats are being obstructionists … If he has the courage to do that, then I think he will walk away a winner," McIntosh told me in a phone interview Monday.
The Club for Growth on Monday launched a website, PassSaveAmericaAct.com, to highlight senators' positions on the legislation and on trying to force a "talking filibuster" to pass the bill, in conjunction with issuing a key vote alert for its lawmaker scorecard.
The group argues the SAVE America Act, which would require voter ID when casting a ballot and proof of citizenship when registering to vote, is "common-sense" and popular. A February Harvard/Harris poll found 71 percent support for the SAVE Act among all voters, with 54 percent prioritizing "stopping voter fraud over access concerns for eligible citizens."
McIntosh and others working for Republican victories in the upcoming elections look at those kinds of numbers and see a major midterm argument. It would be a boon to Republicans in November to make Democrats argue against popular positions like requiring voter ID.
"If they are forced to defend that very unpopular position, then I think it actually helps Republicans going into the general election," McIntosh said.
But the success of that campaign strategy depends on what happens in the Senate debate.
"If Republicans are seen as cutting off debate because they don't want to spend the time on it, and not forcing the Democrats to actually engage in the filibuster, then I think it hurts Republicans," McIntosh said.
The Club isn't alone in mounting a major push for the bill.
"Once the debate begins, we want to keep the debate going as long as possible. We don't want Thune to come in and close the debate too early," Jenny Beth Martin, president of the Tea Party Patriots group that has long been aggressively pushing the SAVE Act, said on Bannon's WarRoom show on Monday.
As Trump pledges to not sign any bills until the SAVE America Act passes, the issue is set to become a bigger issue in GOP primaries — particularly in the Texas GOP Senate runoff between Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
"I think the issues have shifted from the immigration and border," McIntosh said of GOP primaries. "Issues like the SAVE Act that probably weren't that front center in the last wave of primaries will become front and center. You're going to see the Republican primary voters want the Senate to stand up and fight for it."
The Club famously clashed with Trump in previous years, such as in the 2022 Ohio Senate GOP primary, backing Josh Mandel rather than now-Vice President JD Vance, leading Trump to dub it the "Club for No Growth."
That isn't really happening this year, with McIntosh saying that the Club is coordinating with the White House political team. It's waiting to see what Trump ends up doing before endorsing in the open Kentucky Senate primary between Rep. Andy Barr (who the group is opposing), businessman Nate Morris, and former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
The group did, however, endorse Rep. Mike Collins in the Georgia Senate GOP primary earlier this month despite Trump not yet weighing in.
GOP primary voters, McIntosh said, are going to the polls asking: "Are Republicans going to continue to fight for the agenda the president's laid out there?"
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