Hawley Slams GOP Senators Over SAVE Act Vote
Sen. Josh Hawley came out swinging after the Senate blocked his effort to attach the SAVE Act to a budget reconciliation package. The Missouri Republican said four GOP senators sided with Democrats and helped sink a bill aimed at tightening election rules.
During Thursday night’s marathon voting session, Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Thom Tillis voted to block the amendment. Hawley said he could not understand why Republicans would oppose voter ID, especially when the idea is already familiar in many states.
“Listen, we’ve been doing this in Missouri for years. I mean voters in my state put it in our constitution.”
He added, “Voter ID is the most popular thing out there,” and said the public wants elections that are “safe” and “fair.”
“There’s a reason for that. People want their elections to be safe, they want them to be fair. And to me, you can’t explain it to me why you wouldn’t vote for voter ID. I just don’t understand it.”
The SAVE Act would require people registering for federal elections to show proof of American citizenship and would mandate photo identification to cast ballots. Hawley pointed out that 37 states already use some form of voter ID, which he said shows the idea is not extreme or new.
The fight was tied to a broader $70 billion reconciliation bill meant to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol. Conservatives argued that pairing border security with election integrity made sense. Democrats opposed it, and so did Republican senators who said voter ID should remain a state issue.
Hawley pushed back on that argument too. “We make federal rules all the time for elections,” he said. “I mean all the time we do. And there’s nothing more basic than protecting the integrity of the ballot and that’s what this is about.”
Majority Whip John Thune and Senate GOP leaders kept moving the larger funding package forward as part of the push to reopen the last piece of the government gridlocked by Democrats. But the SAVE Act vote showed once again that election integrity remains a sharp dividing line inside the Republican conference.
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For Hawley, the message was simple. He said the issue will not go away, and he suggested voters are likely to keep pressing until Congress acts. In his view, requiring ID and proof of citizenship should be a baseline safeguard, not a partisan fight.