Thune says GOP will benefit in midterms from Democratic opposition to SAVE America Act

HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday that Republicans will benefit in the midterm elections from Democratic opposition to the SAVE America Act, a bill requiring photo ID to vote.

He told Fox News that Democrats should join the GOP to pass the bill, which would also require proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

“We want to make sure that if you’re in this country, you have to be a citizen of this country, actually, to exercise and cast your vote. So I think that’s a fairly simple position and one that Democrats ought to eventually get on board with,” Thune said. “But if they don’t, we will, I mean, it’s obviously an issue that we will be able to use, I think, in the fall elections.”

Senate Democrats have blocked the SAVE America Act and variations of it from advancing. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has argued that the bill would disenfranchise millions of voters.

“Let me be very clear, the SAVE Act is not a voter ID bill,” he said during a speech on Tuesday. “It is in every sense a voter suppression bill.”

The Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy think tank, found in a 2023 study that nine percent of Americans – more than 20 million people – didn’t have citizenship proof on hand.

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