This past Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris told Wisconsin Public Radio that she supports eliminating the Senate filibuster to pass a codification of Roe v. Wade. If the filibuster were to be eliminated, the Senate would just need a simple majority of 51 rather than 60 votes to pass legislation. Harris has voiced support for ending the filibuster as early as 2019 while she was a senator, as she hoped to pass the Green New Deal.
Moderate Democrat Senators, including Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (technically both Independents, but caucus with Democrats) have since made public statements denouncing the elimination of the filibuster.
In a post on X, Sinema said, “To state the supremely obvious, eliminating the filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade also enables a future Congress to ban all abortion nationwide. What an absolutely terrible, shortsighted idea.”
Manchin was enflamed by Harris’s idea saying to CNN, “Shame on her; she knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy. It’s the only thing that keeps us talking and working together.” Reportedly, Harris’s support of ending the filibuster is why Manchin is no longer planning on endorsing her.
In a 2020 comment to the National Review, Senator Tester indicated he would consider voting to eliminate the filibuster saying, “We’ll see what happens in the election, and we’ll see what happens with, you know, potential obstruction.” In 2019, however, he also told the National Review, “Nope” when asked if he would ever support ending the filibuster.
Notably, Tester has made no public comments about the filibuster in the wake of Harris’s vow to end it this week. Tester, as the former chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, recruited Harris to run for Senate back in 2015.
Senator Tester’s press team have not yet responded to YCN’s request for comment at the time of publication.
