By Lindsay Wise

WASHINGTON -- President Trump has an ultimatum for GOP senators: Get on board or else.

The president wants Congress to pass strict new voting eligibility rules ahead of the midterm elections. But his crusade -- which is seen as unlikely to succeed -- is exposing deep fissures among Republicans as they clash over both tactics and policy.

An initial procedural vote on the SAVE America Act is set for later Tuesday. Trump allies are gearing up for a marathon debate in the Senate intended to pressure Democrats and spotlight Republicans' voter-ID crackdown. But the Senate's Republican leaders are trying to temper expectations, warning that the bill is destined to fail in the face of united Democratic opposition and reticence from some GOP colleagues.

The SAVE America Act would require people to present documentary evidence of citizenship, in person, when registering to vote. It would require photo ID to cast a ballot, establish a continuing program to remove noncitizens from voting rolls and establish criminal and civil penalties for officials who register applicants to vote without requisite proof. Trump also wants to end most mail-in voting.

Trump wrote in a social-media post on Tuesday that he would never endorse any Republican who voted against the SAVE America Act, saying "only sick, demented, or deranged people" would do so.

A few Republican senators, such as Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina openly oppose the SAVE America Act. Many others have been pushing back privately, hoping to scrap or modify Trump's proposed ban on voting by mail, which is popular in rural and red states.

Republicans also are divided on strategy. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) has said he would allow the debate to go on for as long as Republicans want, but eventually he will set up votes to advance the bill at the Senate's usual 60-vote threshold. That means at some point, Democrats, who say the SAVE America Act could discourage millions of legitimate voters from casting ballots, would block it from advancing.

Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah), the bill's lead sponsor, is publicly pressuring Thune, saying Senate Republicans must keep debate going until the bill passes. He argues that Thune should force a traditional talking filibuster until opponents either cave and allow final passage of the bill at a simple majority, or flip flop and agree to advance it at 60.

"If your senators don't support using the talking filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act, you might need to replace them," Lee said on X Tuesday.

Thune has repeatedly warned that a talking filibuster won't work. As opposed to the talkathon the Senate is set to kick off Tuesday, a real talking filibuster would put a halt to all other legislative business, Thune has said, and Republicans, who narrowly control the Senate 53-47, don't have the unanimity needed to keep the Senate in session indefinitely and defeat endless dilatory motions and amendments forced by Democrats.

"You have a lot of optimists out there, and I appreciate that, and a lot of passion and energy behind getting an outcome here, but getting an outcome would require Democrat votes," Thune said last week.

Murkowski is one of a handful of Senate Republicans who hasn't signed on as a co-sponsor of the SAVE America Act. The Alaska senator has said she supports voter ID, but that the bill would federalize elections best left to the states and impose new requirements that would be hard to implement.

The requirement for individuals to show citizenship proof in person, for example, "can be daunting in Alaska," where many people live in communities that aren't on the road system, Murkowski said in an opinion article last month. "Under this bill, registering to vote could mean purchasing plane tickets and securing lodging and transportation, at a personal cost of hundreds to thousands of dollars," she wrote.

Tillis, who also hasn't co-sponsored the bill, said last week that he doesn't think it is necessary and that elections should be entrusted to the states. "I'm content with the safety and security of our elections" in North Carolina, he said. Tillis also opposes strict limits on mail-in voting, which he said voters rely on in rural states.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), the former Republican Senate leader, hasn't co-sponsored the bill and hasn't said why. But in the past McConnell has said it is the states, not the federal government, that have the authority to administer elections.

Behind the scenes, other Republican senators have urged the White House to more narrowly tailor the legislation to focus on banning automatic ballot mailing, rather than mail-in voting, people familiar with the conversations said.

Still, an amendment offered by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.) in cooperation with the White House and Lee would ban mail-in voting in most cases, with narrow exceptions. Thune and other Republicans said they are still trying to persuade the White House to compromise on the strict mail-in voting in Schmitt's amendment.

"It's problematic because a lot of people use mail in voting, and a lot of them are in rural areas such as mine," said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R., W.Va.).

"The total ban is a problem for me," said Sen. Steve Daines (R., Mont.). Daines noted that more than 70% of Montanans vote by mail. He said there was "progress being made" in talks with the White House.

Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine), the most vulnerable Senate Republican running this year, has said she supports the SAVE America Act, but on Tuesday she reiterated her opposition to eliminating the Senate's 60-vote threshold to advance the bill, as Lee and some other Republicans have called for.

"The filibuster is an important protection for the rights of the minority party that requires senators to work together in the best interest of the country," she said in a statement to the Journal.

At least four other Senate Republicans have said they, too, would oppose ending the 60-vote rule, leaving the GOP short of the 51 votes needed to unilaterally change it.

Write to Lindsay Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 17, 2026 15:06 ET (19:06 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.