The political nonprofit organization aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is spending $1 million in West Virginia to encourage Sen. Joe Manchin to resist pressure from Democratic leaders to dismantle the filibuster.
The advertisements from One Nation are running statewide on television, radio, and digital platforms as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top Democrats squeeze Manchin to walk back his commitment to preserve the 60-vote threshold for clearing legislation through the Senate. The Democrats are leaning on Manchin in a bid to pass a major overhaul of federal election law, with the bill having zero chance under current Senate rules because Republicans are unanimously opposed.
“West Virginians know Senator Manchin as a man of his word who will stand up to Chuck Schumer and the D.C. liberals who want to dictate West Virginia’s election laws and take away our freedom,” said One Nation President Steven Law in a statement on Wednesday. One Nation is affiliated with Senate Leadership Fund, the McConnell-aligned super PAC.
BYRON YORK’S DAILY MEMO: HOUSE DEMOCRATS HEAD FOR THE EXITS
In the new ad from One Nation, clips of Manchin pledging to uphold the filibuster play back to back, with a voice-over urging voters to “call Sen. Manchin, tell him to keep his promise, [and] protect the Senate filibuster” from efforts by Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to tear it down and “jam through their socialist agenda.”
For years, the Democrats opposed efforts to scrap the legislative filibuster, even as recently as former President Donald Trump’s administration.
The Republicans controlled the Senate during Trump’s presidency, and he repeatedly urged McConnell to eliminate the 60-vote threshold and move to a simple majority vote for legislation to ease passage of his agenda. Democrats spoke against the proposal.
Notably, then-Majority Leader McConnell refused, although he did invoke the “nuclear option,” breaking the rules to change the rules to eliminate 60-vote filibusters for confirmation of Supreme Court justices.
Democrats, now in command of the White House and Congress and struggling to pass legislation they describe as essential to voting rights, have flipped their position at least partly because the liberal base of their party is demanding they do so. (Even in control of a 50-seat majority dependent on Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote, Democrats are 10 votes short — only if Manchin is on board.)
President Joe Biden, a former senator, has softened his opposition to changing Senate rules to weaken the filibuster. Schumer and other Democrats are asking Manchin to, at the very least, agree to a special carveout that would eliminate the 60-vote threshold for H.R. 1, the “For the People Act.”
The centrist Democrat said he is open to passing some version of a voting rights bill but has emphasized he is not in favor of messing with the filibuster to do it.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The West Virginian is not the only fly in the ointment for Democrats. Another centrist, Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, also opposes changes to the filibuster.
Meanwhile, McConnell claims any carveout to pass H.R. 1 would effectively mean the end of the filibuster, just as what happened with executive branch nominees when then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who died last week, invoked the nuclear option to dismantle the 60-vote threshold for all appointees except Supreme Court justices. Republicans argue the Democrats’ voting bill would dangerously expand federal power over the ballot box.
