Sen. Ron Johnson said Thursday he wants the Senate to vote on nixing the legislative filibuster, as an effort to convince fellow Republicans to bypass it altogether is running into a brick wall.

The Wisconsin Republican’s suggestion comes as the Senate will next week begin consideration of a partisan election bill known as the SAVE America Act. Some GOP senators on the conference’s right flank have been lobbying leadership and their colleagues to agree to invoke a “talking filibuster” as a way to get around the 60-vote requirement to advance the legislation. It would force Democrats to hold the floor if they want to block the measure.

“If we do go to a cloture vote [on the election bill], immediately after that we ought to vote on ending the filibuster,” Johnson told reporters, referring to the 60-vote threshold.

That vote, too, would fail to garner the necessary support, but Johnson said his position was, “let’s get people on the record” — including Democrats, many of whom have previously supported weakening the 60-vote filibuster.

According to the Senate GOP’s current strategy, first reported by Blue Light News, Senate Republicans are expected to take up the House-passed elections bill next week — a step for which they will only need 51 votes. It’s unclear if Republicans will even be able to clear that bar, as Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Thursday he will vote against taking up the bill and a handful of other GOP senators haven’t yet said how they will vote.

If Republicans are able to overcome that initial hurdle, the chamber will then debate the measure for several days, with potential amendment votes to incorporate some of Trump’s new priorities into the underlying legislation. That includes barring transgender women from participating in women’s sports and prohibiting gender affirming surgery for children, as well as possibly imposing a near-universal ban on mail-in voting.

But at the end of this lengthy process, the SAVE America Act will need to clear a 60-vote threshold. That means it will fail, since Democrats are expected to oppose the proposal en masse.

Johnson, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and other conservatives had previously pitched invoking a talking filibuster because it wouldn’t require a formal rules change. It has, however, sparked widespread concern inside the party that the maneuver would backfire and allow Democrats to eat up months of the legislative calendar before the midterms.

Johnson acknowledged Thursday that a “true talking filibuster” would also allow Democrats to force amendment votes, which could put vulnerable GOP incumbents in a tough spot — and that the process the Senate will use instead will still put Democrats on the record over the GOP elections bill.

Lee also appeared to acknowledge in a video he posted to X late Wednesday night that the talking filibuster gambit was a no-go, but urged Republicans to delay a final, 60-vote cloture motion for as long as possible to try to put pressure on Democrats to relent.

“We shouldn’t file for cloture until we think we can get to 60. Otherwise, we keep it going,” Lee said.

Johnson, separately, quipped Thursday that perhaps Republicans will be “so successful” in making their case for the bill that the “American people” will put “so much pressure on Democrats” and the SAVE America Act will pass.

He added, however, that he doesn’t actually believe that’s “highly likely.”

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) on Thursday shared a social media post calling Muslims “the enemy,” joining a growing number of sitting GOP members to share Islamophobic rhetoric.

Tuberville on Thursday retweeted a post that showed a picture of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani sitting cross-legged on the floor surrounded by people that was juxtaposed with a photo of the Twin Towers in New York burning on Sept. 11, 2001. The caption of the original post read, “Less than 25 years apart.”

Tuberville added his own caption: “The enemy is inside the gates.”

A spokesperson for Tuberville’s office referred Blue Light News to a separate post by Tuberville on Thursday that stated that calling Islam a “cult” doesn’t make someone an Islamophobe, among other things.

In U.S. courts, state and federal laws supersede religious rules. However, a group of Congressional members have started the Sharia-Free America Caucus.

A spokesperson for Mamdani, who is the first Muslim mayor of New York City, referred Blue Light News to Mamdani’s own post. 

“Let there be as much outrage from politicians in Washington when kids go hungry as there is when I break bread with New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.

Tuberville’s post on Thursday is the latest in a string of anti-Islam attacks made by sitting members of Congress. Earlier this week, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) faced backlash for saying “Muslims don’t belong in America.” Last month, Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) faced calls for censure from Democrats after saying dogs are preferable to Muslims.

But Republican leadership has not publicly denounced or reprimanded members for such posts.

Speaker Mike Johnson did notcondemn Ogles’ post this week, and none of the Senate GOP leadership — Majority Leader John Thune, Majority Whip John Barrasso or Republican Conference Chair Tom Cotton — immediately responded to requests for comment on Tuberville’s post.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, however, was quick to condemn Tuberville’s post as “Islamophobic hate.”

“This is mindless hate,” Schumer said in a post on X. “Muslim Americans are cops, doctors, nurses, teachers, bankers, bricklayers, mothers, fathers, neighbors, mayors, and more. Islamophobic hate like this is fundamentally un-American and we must confront and overcome it whenever it rears its ugly head.”

House Republicans discussed plans for a second party-line megabill during their policy retreat in Florida this past week, and now GOP senators want in on the action.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), in her capacity as head of the Senate DOGE Caucus, sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson and House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) outlining what she says are $93.5 billion in savings that could be incorporated into a filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation bill.

“Republicans should seize every opportunity to advance policies that lower prices, cut taxes, and lift burdensome regulations off the backs of American families while we hold the White House and majorities in both chambers of Congress,” Ernst wrote in the letter, shared first with Blue Light News. “This moment will not last forever.”

Her list includes proposals to claw back unspent COVID-era funds; rescind more of former President Joe Biden’s climate initiatives; impose stiffer penalties for states with high rates of inaccurate SNAP food aid payments; implement a new $250 fee for new electric vehicle owners; and create more accountability for government charge cards.

“This is not an exhaustive list, and I stand ready to help you pass another transformational reconciliation bill,” Ernst said.

The DOGE Caucus, created to mirror the work of the now largely defunct Department of Government Efficiency formerly led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has little tangible power on Capitol Hill. But Ernst’s appeal signals the extent to which jockeying among Republicans has begun as discussions accelerate around a second megabill — even if there’s scant evidence congressional Republicans can pull one off.

Johnson told House Republicans in a closed-door session closing out the retreat Wednesday that he remains intent on pursuing a new reconciliation package to follow on last year’s “big beautiful bill” focused largely on tax cuts. The legislation could theoretically tackle some cost-of-living issues, but the speaker didn’t offer any specific policies that would be incorporated or a timeline for advancing it, according to four people in the room granted anonymity to describe the private meeting.

Some senior Republicans present privately warned they don’t have much time left for such a big legislative lift, and their razor-thin and frequently fractious House majority could make it difficult to find necessary consensus around a final legislative product.