Hawley Blasts 4 Republicans Who Voted To Reject Adding Voter ID Bill To Reconciliation

Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri is calling out four Republican senators who voted against a procedural motion that would have helped add the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act to a major $70 billion budget reconciliation package.

The amendment, offered by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, would have required documented proof of citizenship when registering to vote and identification when casting a ballot. But the proposal failed to clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold after four Republicans joined Democrats in opposition.

Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina voted against waiving procedural objections that stood in the way of attaching the SAVE America Act to the broader package.

For Hawley, the opposition from fellow Republicans was difficult to justify, particularly given how widely supported voter ID requirements are among Americans.

“I guess it’s frustration,” Hawley told Fox News Digital when asked about the failure to add the SAVE America Act to the reconciliation package.

“Listen, we’ve been doing this in Missouri for years. I mean, voters in my state put it in our constitution,” he said.

“Voter ID is the most popular thing out there,” Hawley said.

“There’s reason for that. People want their elections to be safe, they want them to be fair. And to me, you can’t explain it to me, why you wouldn’t vote for voter ID. I just don’t understand it,” he added.

The vote marked another setback for Senate Republicans attempting to advance President Donald J. Trump’s election integrity agenda, including citizenship verification and voter identification requirements.

Still, a late-night vote during the Senate’s marathon vote-a-rama breathed new life into a proposal many conservatives feared had stalled.

Republicans made two attempts to attach the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act to the GOP’s $70 billion immigration enforcement package. Both amendments faced an uphill climb because of the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold.

Graham’s amendment included a revised version of the SAVE America Act along with several additional conservative priorities, including a prohibition on biological males competing in women’s sports — an issue Trump has repeatedly championed.

But Collins, Murkowski, McConnell, and Tillis opposed the proposal, preventing Republicans from reaching even the 50-vote mark that could have strengthened the case for using a talking filibuster strategy.

A separate amendment from Sen. Mike Lee of Utah performed better. Collins switched her vote and supported Lee’s original version of the SAVE America Act, allowing the measure to secure 50 votes.

Lee celebrated the result on X, noting that with Vice President JD Vance available to break a tie, the bill had enough support to pass the Senate by a simple majority if not for the filibuster barrier.

“That means that but for the Zombie Filibuster, the House-passed SAVE America Act would now be on its way to the White House for President Trump’s signature,” Lee said.

Lee and other conservatives have urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune to pursue a talking filibuster strategy, forcing Democrats to hold the floor and defend their opposition to basic election security measures.

Senate Republicans previously launched an extended floor effort in March to force debate on the SAVE America Act, but momentum has faded in recent months as internal divisions and Senate procedure slowed the bill’s path forward.

For conservatives, the fight underscores a larger question facing the Republican Party: whether GOP leaders are willing to use every available tool to secure American elections, protect citizenship-based voting, and deliver on President Trump’s election integrity promises.

The SAVE America Act remains one of the clearest dividing lines in Washington. Republicans say American elections should be reserved for American citizens, while Democrats and a handful of GOP senators continue to resist federal proof-of-citizenship requirements.