During his campaign for Senate, Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock repeatedly refused to give a straight answer on whether he supported eliminating the filibuster.
But now that he’s in office and on the side of a razor-thin majority, he’s lobbying his colleagues to support gutting the filibuster in order to pass Democrats’ sweeping election system overhaul bill.
“No Senate rules can take priority over the foundation of the democracy itself,” Warnock told CNN on Monday. “One person, one vote. We have to find a way to preserve that.”
The baptist pastor reportedly took his advocacy for circumventing the filibuster all the way to President Joe Biden in hopes of getting the 36-year Senate veteran’s backing to reform or circumvent the rule.
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Warnock was notoriously vague about his filibuster stance on the campaign trail.
“We’re taking a look at it,” he told the Huffington Post about the filibuster in April 2020. “There are arguments worth engaging and taking seriously on both sides. I think the argument that moves, quite honestly, depending on who’s in power sometimes. At the end of the day, senators get to vote, even with the filibuster. They have a voice.”
His answer was largely unchanged through his election to the Senate.
The day after Georgia’s Jan. 5 runoff election, when it was clear that Warnock defeated Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, The View host Meghan McCain asked Warnock whether he would commit not to follow up on “adding two states, eliminating the filibuster, and packing the Supreme Court with more members” — outcomes that conservatives feared could come from a slim Democratic majority and trifecta Democratic control of the White House, Senate, and House.
“I’m not focused on any of those things,” Warnock responded, adding that “those are interesting conversations inside the beltway,” but “ordinary people are asking” about issues like healthcare.
In the two months since being sworn in, though, Warnock has used the priority of passing the H.R. 1 election overhaul bill as an impetus for taking a firmer stance against the filibuster.
He asserted in his first Senate floor speech earlier this month advocating for passage of the For The People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, Warnock asserted that the legislation is “bigger than the filibuster.”
“The president understands, as I do, that the maintenance and integrity of our democracy is much more important than any Senate rule,” Warlock told the Hill press pool on Thursday following Biden hinting in a press conference that he could support scrapping the filibuster if Republicans block his agenda. “I have every confidence that we’re going to find a way to get voting rights done.”
When asked earlier this week about the filibuster as it relates to another issue, gun control, Warnock told the hill press pool: “There’s going to be robust discussion on the filibuster. It’s difficult to say how all of that will play out.”
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Warnock’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when exactly he decided to be against the filibuster or to respond to Republican assertions that he only stayed quiet about his filibuster position in order to get elected.
“I honestly think that the obsession with one’s own political fortunes is the reason why the democracy itself is imperiled by these craven, unabashed tactics to win at any cost,” Warnock told CNN on Monday.
