2020 Democrat says Senate filibuster should go

Published August 7, 2019 5:54pm ET



Montana Gov. Steve Bullock separated himself from most of his Democratic presidential competitors by calling for an end to the Senate filibuster, a procedural rule he says make it near impossible for his party’s agenda to be enacted.

Bullock on Wednesday blasted the Senate’s filibuster rule, which effectively requires 60 votes for any legislation to pass. Senators in the Democratic presidential field, including Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and several others, have not explicitly called for an end to the rule. Senators of both parties generally defend the filibuster rule as a preservation of minority rights unique to the chamber. With the Senate shifting partisan control seven times in the past quarter-century — in 2015, 2006, 2003, in 2001 three times, and 1994 — lawmakers know that today’s majority could be tomorrow’s minority.

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