Retiring GOP Sen. Tillis Vows to Block SAVE America Act Any Way He Can: ‘I Will Use Every Device’

As President Donald Trump calls for efforts to enhance election integrity, vehement anti-Trumper and retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina says he will not allow that on his watch.

Prior to Trump’s primetime address Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s points on election integrity will be a clarion call for action, according to The Hill.

“I think all Americans — Democrat, Republican — should agree that we are the greatest country in the history of the world. We should have the safest and most secure elections in the history of the world,” Leavitt said.

“And what the president will be speaking about tonight will show you that perhaps that is not the case, and we need to make some adjustments moving forward, including the SAVE America Act,” she added, referring to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.

Earlier Thursday, Tillis said he will do anything necessary to prevent election reform from passing the Senate, according to The Hill.

“If I see a reconciliation bill come from the House with another failed attempt to confuse this election, I will use every device I have available to slow down the wheels of government until people cop a clue and do the math,” Tillis said.

I asked Senator Thom Tillis about his vote against the Save America act and whether it has anything to do with the money he’s receiving from industries who profit off of cheap illegal labor.

He was VERY mad about the question.

We deserve better than these America Last losers! pic.twitter.com/v9zQgzQGq7

— Sara Gonzales (@SaraGonzalesTX) July 14, 2026

Tillis said that even if the bill were to pass, it could not be implemented for the upcoming midterm elections in November, noting that multiple levels of government are involved in the process, and all would be impacted.

“I have been trying to explain for nearly a year that the SAVE Act, whether it’s the SAVE Act, the SAVE America Act, the new SAVE legislation that’s being proposed in the House, SAVE goes to Hollywood, SAVE goes to Hawaii, whatever the sequels are, all of them are fundamentally flawed and impossible to implement by this election,” Tillis said.

Tillis said giving states grants to support voter ID is fine with him, but using the budget reconciliation process is not the way to get the SAVE America Act passed.

“Let’s stop the charade. Let’s stop the distraction,” he said.

“Let’s get the government funded, let’s use reconciliation if we need to, but let’s not clog it up with another piece of policy airdropped by a member of this Senate or the White House that will undermine this bill, undermine what we need to get done before the election,” he continued.

Reconciliation is a process that allows budget-related bills to be approved in the Senate through a simple majority. The GOP holds a 53-47 edge in the Senate.

However, to approve the bill as a standalone piece of legislation, it needs 60 votes. Democrats have been united in opposition to the bill.

A recently unearthed video showed Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan saying that there is a very clear partisan need to stall the bill, according to Fox News.

“It would be hard for any Democrat in any state to win any election,” Slotkin said of the SAVE America Act.

Slotkin did not explain how the proposal would do that.

Republican Rep. Tony Wied of Wisconsin seized upon that comment.

“Democrats are saying the quiet part out loud,” he said. “They know they can’t win on their own merit.”

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