Democrats spent years planning to kill the filibuster the moment they retake the Senate. They put it in a progressive caucus resolution. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) confirmed it on a podcast. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New york promised court-packing and Senate “reform” in the same breath. The plan was airtight.
Then someone remembered Angus King exists. The independent senator from Maine who caucuses with Democrats told the Washington Post he has changed his mind on the filibuster — he supported the effort to eliminate it in 2022, but no longer. “They were right, and I was wrong,” King said, praising Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for blocking the rules change.
This is significant for a specific reason. If Democrats flip the Senate in November and need to eliminate the filibuster to pass their agenda — the court packing, the voting “rights” bill, the open borders legislation — they may need 51 votes to do it, not 50, if King holds firm. That means flipping the Senate alone isn’t enough. They’d need a King-proof majority.
The caveat that deserves emphasis: this is good news only if Republicans fail to do what they should have done months ago. The correct lesson here is not “great, we’re protected, the filibuster is safe” — it’s “pass the SAVE America Act now, before Democrats find a way around King or pressure him into reversing course again.” King changed his position once. He can change it again. Politicians who pride themselves on independence have a way of finding reasons to accommodate their caucus when the pressure gets intense enough.
The Joe Manchin comparison is instructive here. Manchin held out on the disastrously expensive trillion-dollar falsely named “Build Back Better” for months, extracting concessions, positioning himself as the moderate bulwark against progressive overreach. Then he voted for the Inflation Reduction Act — a massive climate and spending bill that was Build Back Better with a new coat of paint. Manchin’s “principled opposition” had a price. King’s may too.
More fundamentally, the question of whether Democrats can kill the filibuster if they win the Senate is downstream of the question of whether they win the Senate. Republicans hold it right now. They spent their August recess arguing about procedural options instead of passing the SAVE America Act with the majority they already have. The time to act was before the vacation. The time to act is now, when they come back in September.
King’s filibuster position is a pleasant surprise and a potential speedbump for Democratic plans. It is not a substitute for Republicans doing their jobs while they still control the chamber.
Pass the SAVE America Act. Don’t leave the fate of American election integrity to the goodwill of an independent senator from Maine who already flipped once and might flip again. Republicans have the majority now. Use it.
