{"id":2602236,"date":"2026-05-13T14:22:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/john-failure-is-not-an-option-thune-just-failed-election-integrity\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T14:23:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:23:56","slug":"john-failure-is-not-an-option-thune-just-failed-election-integrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/john-failure-is-not-an-option-thune-just-failed-election-integrity\/","title":{"rendered":"John &#8216;Failure Is Not An Option&#8217; Thune Just Failed Election Integrity"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjohn-failure-is-not-an-option-thune-just-failed-election-integrity%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2602236&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>John Thune, Senate Majority Leader, says the SAVE America act-meant to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fighting-back-republican-creates-response-to-stacey-abrams-voter-organization-in-georgia-adds-focus-on-election-integrity\/\" title=\"Fighting Back: Republican Creates Response To Stacey Abrams... Voter Organization In Georgia, Adds Focus On \u2018......\">strengthen election integrity<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ap-admits-noncitizens-vote-in-u-s-elections-while-insisting-its-no-big-deal\/\" title=\"AP Acknowledges Noncitizens&#039; ... in U.S. ... with Minimal Concern\">requiring documentary proof<\/a> of U.S.citizenship to register and photo ID to vote-can\u2019t advance because Republicans lack the votes to overcome the filibuster.He points to prior floor activity and calls it a \u201cmarathon debate,\u201d arguing leadership has done what it can.<\/p>\n<p>The piece argues that Thune\u2019s \u201cfailure is not an option\u201d framing is misleading, portraying the debate as staged rather than productive. It cites votes where Democrats opposed key provisions like photo ID and also opposed a related amendment banning males from girls\u2019 sports, using those examples to contend Democrats will <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >consistently resist election-integrity reforms<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It further claims Republicans could pursue procedural alternatives-such as a \u201ctalking filibuster\u201d approach that woudl lower the barrier to passage-yet leadership shows no serious commitment to doing so, implying the real obstacle is leadership unwillingness rather than mathematical impossibility. The article concludes that public support for voter verification is broad and that the blame for failing to pass the act lies with Thune and Senate Republican leadership, not with election-integrity-denying Democrats.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Sure, the do-nothing Republican Senate leadership just put a bullet in the back of the head of election-integrity reform, but you\u2019ll be glad to know they gave it the old college try. They had a \u201cspirited debate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune pulled the curtain down on the failure theater of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sUW8trWR9gE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cmarathon debate\u201d<\/a> on the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/05\/06\/18-voter-fraud-prosecutions-racking-up-while-republican-led-congress-ignores-save-act\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act<\/a>. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/white-house-press-release-another-new-poll-shows-massive-support-for-save-america-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">extremely popular <\/a>cornerstones of the package would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in U.S. elections and photo ID to cast a ballot. <\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Leader Thune says there&#8217;s nothing more he can do to pass the Save America Act: &#8220;We don&#8217;t have the votes to get rid of the filibuster. We had a very spirited debate. I made more speeches on the floor in support of the SAVE Act than any other senator.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xBu11sFDDN\">pic.twitter.com\/xBu11sFDDN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 TheBlaze (@theblaze) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theblaze\/status\/2054272452306329746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 12, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Let\u2019s face it, the debate show was the plan all along. And the South Dakota Republican was the star of the \u201cdeliberative\u201d farce. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe called it up on the floor, March, I think, 17th. We were on it for several weeks and, uh, had a very spirited debate,\u201d Thune said.\u00a0\u201cIn fact, uh, I actually, I think, with the exception of maybe a couple of Republican senators, I made more speeches on the floor in support of the SAVE Act than almost any other senator.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not all heroes wear capes. <\/p>\n<p>As Thune noted, the Senate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/03\/26\/congress\/senate-rejects-voter-id-00846576\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">took a vote <\/a>on one of the key components of the SAVE America Act: requiring photo identification to vote. The upper house took another vote on the <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/5794738-save-america-act-amendment-transgender-athletes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tack-on provision<\/a> in the bill that would ban males from girls\u2019 sports. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd we put the Democrats on the record. Every single Democrat voted against it,\u201d the majority leader said. <\/p>\n<p>To borrow a line from my mid-1980s self, <em>Well, no duh?<\/em> Of course the Democrats all voted against the provisions. A) They\u2019re insane. B) They want as little integrity in our elections as humanly possible. Election integrity costs them elections. <\/p>\n<p>But Thune and crew want very frustrated voters to know, <em>Hey, we tried. Our hands are tied<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>No, you didn\u2019t. And no, they\u2019re really not. <\/p>\n<p>Thune says, \u201cWe don\u2019t have the votes to get rid of the filibuster.\u201d That\u2019s probably true. Too many Senate Republicans live under the delusion that when Democrats take back the Senate they won\u2019t nuke the filibuster to slam through all kinds of Marxist legislation, including their <a href=\"https:\/\/tenney.house.gov\/sites\/evo-subsites\/tenney.house.gov\/files\/evo-media-document\/Fact%20vs.%20Myth%20H.R.%204_Final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">election bill <\/a>that would truly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-raises-nationalized-voting-idea-during-bonginos-podcast-return\/\" title=\"Trump raises &#039;nationalized voting&#039; idea during Bongino&#039;s podcast return\">federalize election administration<\/a> and effectively do away with voter ID laws now on the books in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsl.org\/elections-and-campaigns\/voter-id\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">36 states<\/a>. Spoiler Alert, John: They will. <\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Failure Is Not an Option\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>As The Federalist\u2019s Brianna Lyman <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/05\/13\/thune-has-tried-nothing-to-pass-the-save-act-and-hes-all-out-of-ideas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported,<\/a> dropping the bomb on the filibuster isn\u2019t the only way to passage. The <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/02\/19\/bringing-back-the-talking-filibuster-could-do-more-to-save-america-than-just-passing-the-save-act\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">talking filibuster,<\/a> forcing Democrats to hold the floor through actual continuous debate until they run out of opportunities to speak, would drop the 60-vote cloture threshold to a 51-vote simple majority. The Senate would just have to do something unheard of in modern American politics: work.  <\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<div lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>Forcing a standing filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act is restoring Senate history. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s become too easy to filibuster in your sleep, obstruct without effort. <\/p>\n<p>We need to change that. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lgqo7fOJTz\">pic.twitter.com\/lgqo7fOJTz<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u2014 Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenMikeLee\/status\/2023583427753374130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Thune insists leadership is \u201ccontinuing to look for opportunities to advance that legislation.\u201d Leadership clearly is not. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously it\u2019s something that I support, I think we all support,\u201d the majority leader said. That\u2019s not so obvious. If it were, they would do everything in their power to pass the election-integrity package. What they have done is far from everything in their power. <\/p>\n<p>Thune is right about one thing. \u201cWe think it\u2019s something that the American people are broadly supportive of as well.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Yes, there is no doubt that the American people support voter verification in elections. The vast majority, despite the fecklessness of the Republican-controlled Senate and the psyops campaign by the Democrat Party and their public-relations agents in the accomplice media, do not want noncitizens voting in U.S. elections. <\/p>\n<p>When it came to passing the massive package known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, Thune said over and over again that \u201cfailure is not an option.\u201d It clearly wasn\u2019t. The Republican Senate put everything on the line to pass the tax policy legislation. Good for them, but that package was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/07\/16\/trump-law-new-poll-00455878\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">considerably less popular<\/a> than the SAVE America Act, and nowhere near as fundamentally important as election integrity. <\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it\u2019s a priority problem. It definitely is a failure of leadership problem. <\/p>\n<p>John Thune may be safely ensconced in his red state Senate seat. But he doesn\u2019t have to be the Senate\u2019s majority leader. <\/p>\n<p>The show appears to be closing on the SAVE America Act. The failure to pass this existential legislation isn\u2019t on election integrity-denying Democrats. It\u2019s on the guy who thinks \u201cspirited debate\u201d is a suitable replacement for necessary action. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-knew-100-percent-he-was-fighting-for-the-little-guy-former-top-trump-economic-adviser\/\" title=\"Trump Knew \u2018100 Percent... He Was \u2018Fighting for the Little Guy...: Former Top Trump Economic Adviser\">award-winning investigative reporter<\/a> and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republican Senate leadership blocked election-integrity reform-claiming a \u201cspirited debate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":2602239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-13-at-12.37.51-PM.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[32644,44946,79616],"class_list":["post-2602236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-election-integrity","tag-john-thune","tag-voting-fraud-claims"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-13-at-12.37.51-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2602236"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2602241,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602236\/revisions\/2602241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2602239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2602236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2602236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2602236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}