Retirements among Senate Democrats are paving the way for younger and fresher successors who are more vocal about abolishing the filibuster.
Efforts to create policy carveouts for the 60-vote threshold under Democratic majorities fell short thanks to centrist holdouts. But Senate hopefuls in several states have a stronger desire to repeal the filibuster in its entirety than the Democrats they seek to replace.
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The conviction against the longtime procedural mechanism that can doom most legislation is an underlying sentiment held by many Senate Democrats and was on full display in a Thursday debate for Michigan’s contested primary to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who’s called to “reassess” the filibuster rather than end it. All three candidates want it gone.
Former Michigan health official Abdul el Sayed advocated for it to be abolished to “expose the senators to democracy again.” State Sen. Mallory McMorrow backed ending it so that elected officials can “govern the way that they see fit to govern and then let the voters decide what happens after that.”
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) was likewise against the filibuster, but included contradictory remarks that inaccurately described how it functions. She said the “filibuster must go,” followed by saying “we should use the filibuster” to block President Donald Trump’s tax law, a party-line measure passed last year under the filibuster-skirting reconciliation process. She added that the Senate “should remove the filibuster, so Democrats could have voted down” the legislation. That move would also not have prevented Republicans from passing it with a simple majority.
The Stevens campaign clarified her stance following the gaffe. A spokesperson said she still “supports eliminating the filibuster to do what’s right for Michigan families, including to codify abortion rights and raise the minimum wage.”
Democratic candidates vying elsewhere for seats being vacated by retiring members of their party include New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Illinois. In some cases, potential successors are more open to alterations or ending it.
Retiring Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) have supported modifying or eliminating the filibuster for policy carveouts such as for voting and abortion rights measures.
Illinois Democratic nominee Juliana Stratton, the state’s lieutenant governor, says she’d “absolutely” support abolishing it. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D-MN) has stated she would support eliminating it “under a Democratic majority.”
More establishment-aligned Senate candidates appear cooler to the idea, which critics argue would all but diminish the minority’s power that Democrats have wielded to oppose Republicans under Trump.
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Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), the presumptive New Hampshire Democratic nominee, has dodged questions on the subject but not ruled out modifying or eliminating it. Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) does not go as far as Flanagan and has said she’d support policy exceptions.
Illinois and Minnesota are relatively safe seats for Democrats, meaning the party’s nominee is likely to be elected in the November midterms. New Hampshire is competitive but leans toward Democrats, and Michigan will again be one of the most contentious toss-up battlegrounds in the nation.
Correction: A previous version of this story mistakenly referenced Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) rather than Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) as retiring.
