GOP’s Moran, Marshall cling to filibuster rule to thwart election bill favored by Democrats

TOPEKA — U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall of Kansas voted against altering filibuster rules of the Senate that would have been relied upon to advance election reforms sought by Democrats and denounced by Republicans.

The Senate requires consent of 60 members to bring legislation to a vote, which was impossible in this case given the 50-50 split in the chamber. The alternative was to initiate the so-called “nuclear option” by modifying the filibuster threshold so a pair of voting rights bills approved by the U.S. House could reach the desk of President Joe Biden. On Wednesday night, Republicans Marshall and Moran voted for the status quo.

Moran, who served in the U.S. House from 1997 to 2011 before crossing over to the U.S. Senate, said American voters elected a divided Congress in 2020.

“Americans did not vote to give one party free rein to implement an unprecedented power grab, to nationalize elections and fundamentally reshape the way the Senate passes legislation by eliminating the filibuster,” Moran said.

There is a slim 222-212 Democratic margin over Republicans in the U.S. House. The U.S. Senate has operated with 50 Republicans and with 48 Democrats and two independents who caucus with them. The resulting 50-50 tie can be broken by Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat who serves as president of the Senate. Her presence means Democrats hold an operational 51-seat majority. In was this advantage Democrats wanted to exploit in a bid to approve election reform with a simple majority vote.

Moran and Marshall joined Republican colleagues and two Democrats to prevent lowering the filibuster barrier and block the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.

“Process is set by the Constitution and the rules of the United States Senate, which requires 60 votes for legislation to be considered and passed,” Moran said. “In the circumstance that those processes are eroded, we erode the personal freedoms of Kansans and all Americans as a result.”

Moran said enhancing the federal government’s role in elections would undermine state authority and create a “less responsive and less accountable” system. Democrats have complained GOP-controlled legislatures aggressively sought reform in 2021 and 2022 that amounted to voter suppression.

Marshall, who was elected in 2020 to replace retired U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, said the filibuster remained an important feature of debate in the chamber. He said it was hypocrisy for Democrats to seek destruction of a 60-vote barrier they defended in the past.

He said the filibuster was a tool for frustrating the majority and a means of pressuring lawmakers to engage in bipartisanship.

“Its purpose is to protect the rights of the minority and prevent the tyranny of the majority,” Marshall said. “Sadly, we are now witnessing the most blatant hypocritical policy switch we’ve ever seen as many current Democrat senators and the president have abandoned those principles.”

He accused Democrats of striving to interfere with state-run elections to “rig our political system in their favor because they can’t win on their own radical socialist policies.”