DOUG TRUAX: It's Time To Force a Talking Filibuster on National Voter ID
This is Trump's top priority for a reason. Senate Republicans must make it theirs—or lose our support.
Originally published at RealClearPolitics (March 21, 2026)
In 2024, the public delivered a resounding mandate to President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to fix our country. Chief among those problems: Ensure we never have a repeat of the disastrous 2020 election.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE America Act, addresses the most important issue plaguing American elections—the absence of a nationwide requirement that voters show ID before casting a ballot. Just as important is the bill's requirement that states disclose their voter rolls with the Department of Homeland Security to identify and remove noncitizens from the registration lists.
Make no mistake, this is the single most important bill before Congress in 2026. The SAVE America Act must reach President Trump's desk and become law—or we soon won't have a country to defend.
We only have to go back to the central problem revealed by the 2020 election irregularities. If we don't know who's casting a ballot, we can't trust the outcome of any election.
If noncitizens can hijack our elections and dilute citizens' votes, we don’t truly rule ourselves. That's all the more poignant as Americans celebrate 250 years of independence.
Leftists and RINOs will call voter ID "burdensome" and "discriminatory."
They're hypocrites.
Americans already show photo ID when they drive, open a bank account, start a new job, buy alcohol or tobacco, board a flight, rent a car, apply for government benefits, rent an apartment, or get a speeding ticket.
The public knows this. A recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll found 81 percent of Americans support voter ID. This is one bill Democrats would prefer to quickly vote down and forget about.
President Trump recognizes this, saying the bill "supersedes everything else" and "must go to the front of the line."
"I would close government over it," the President later added. "To me, that's a core belief."
He's absolutely right.
But the SAVE America Act will never pass the Senate without enough Democrat votes to hit the 60-vote threshold needed to invoke cloture, or by forcing Democrats to cave through a talking filibuster.
“If we can’t pass this, I don’t know what we can pass in the United States Senate,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) correctly noted on the Sean Hannity Show.
The Senate can get bipartisan support for "National Sofa Care Month or this or that awareness resolution," Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) agreed, while Democrats filibuster consequential, non-budgetary legislation.
Other conservatives in the Senate warn that voters will stay home in the crucial midterm elections if they fail to pass the SAVE America Act—but turn out in droves if the GOP keeps its promise.
Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) seems more interested in fundraising on photo ID frustration than pushing the most important bill of 2026 through the Senate.
If Democrats don’t get on board, “it’s an issue we will be able to use, I think, in the fall elections," Thune recently told Fox News anchor Bret Baier.
That's the do-nothing cowardice Americans voted against when they gave Republicans a Senate majority in 2024.
It also makes voters wonder: Do Republicans ever plan to use their power—or just fundraise off it?
The truth is, too few in the Swamp share our priorities. Some in the GOP believe they can betray Republican voters and still expect them to turn out in November.
Others cynically suggest they should quietly give up on the SAVE America Act and campaign this fall on passing it in the next Congress.
Where I come from, we call them "career politicians."
This is a losing strategy. We don't win by selling out the country and breaking promises; we win by proving Republicans can make America great again. That was President Trump's pledge in 2016, 2020, and 2024—and it's his pledge right now.
Let's be clear about what's at stake, because requiring proof of citizenship to vote is the most important issue facing the country today.
If we give that up to play games in Washington, we're as good as abandoning the nation our forefathers secured 250 years ago.
Majority Leader Thune, pass this bill. President Trump, make photo ID the law of the land. And save the country we the People have entrusted to you.
MAKE ELECTIONS FREE AGAIN:
MORE SAVE ACT: Trump Is Right to Hold Congress Hostage Until It Passes the SAVE America Act
FIXING VOTER ROLLS: How the Voter Reference Foundation Provides Election Transparency
NO TRANSPARENCY FOR THEE: Arizona AG Kris Mayes Issues Felony Threats to County Recorders Over DOJ Election Probe
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