Republicans are distancing themselves from President Donald Trump’s call to “nationalize” voting after he floated a federal takeover of elections in more than a dozen states.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) unambiguously rejected the idea of a takeover on Tuesday, telling reporters that he supports stricter voting laws but that the framers were right to delegate the power to administer elections to the states.
“I’m a big believer in decentralized and distributed power,” Thune said.
“I’m supportive of, you know, only citizens voting and showing ID at polling places. I think that makes sense,” he said. “But I’m not in favor of federalizing elections — I mean, I think that’s a constitutional issue.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was less direct, noting that he hasn’t spoken with Trump about the idea but suggested to NBC News that he, too, was skeptical and that the current system “works well, so long as the states make it a priority to ensure the integrity of our elections.”
The pushback comes after Trump remarked to Dan Bongino, a conservative podcaster and ex-deputy FBI director, that Republicans “ought to nationalize the voting.”
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” Trump said. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places.”
The White House has since insisted that the president meant he supports the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, a bill that requires photo ID and proof of citizenship for voting and is broadly popular among Republicans.
Still, Republicans are wary of the kind of sweeping election laws Democrats have previously contemplated and believe that if Republicans attempt the same, it could blow back on them at a later date.
“Democrats would go crazy with that, right? They would truly go crazy with that,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said. “And that’s always been the resistance on our side.”
In the past, Democrats have pushed expansive voting proposals, including no-excuse mail-in voting and universal voter registration, and have come close to passing them, except for the 60-vote obstacle presented by the filibuster.
That’s why, in part, Republicans have rejected efforts to eliminate the filibuster, as Trump has called for, so he can sign the SAVE Act and other election measures into law.
Trump’s biggest Senate defenders argue that the federal government is permitted to set standards for state-run elections, and that the question of a takeover is somewhat a matter of semantics.
“Of course, the states administer the elections. That’s in the Constitution. Everybody gets that,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), arguing that the federal government has been involved in state elections since the Reconstruction era.
“It’s not like, ‘Oh my gosh, there might be like federal standards?’ I mean, they’ve long had them.”
Other Republicans, however, rejected Trump’s proposal as an overstep of federal authority, or otherwise argued that elections are less prone to cyberattacks when states control them.
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“I don’t see how that’s consistent with the Constitution,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said.
“I’m not a proponent,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said.