The controversial 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate in order to pass legislation, which could be removed by Senate majority leadership, has become a vital point in the Georgia Senate race.
Derek Dooley, who is competing against Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., for the Republican nomination to face Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., in November for his seat, said on Newsmax recently that he thinks “there is a bigger issue at stake” when asked if he would work to abolish the filibuster or support the talking filibuster if elected.
“Well, I think there’s a bigger issue at stake,” Dooley said on air. “You know, anytime you talk about the filibuster, of course, the first thing I think about is how would we have liked it back in 2020 if Joe Biden and the Democratic administration would have had it?”
Abolishing the filibuster would eliminate the 60-vote threshold needed to pass legislation in the Senate, while the talking filibuster would keep the threshold but open the door for unlimited debate, and ultimately force a vote on the legislation.
“We couldn’t even reel it back as it relates to packing the Supreme Court, or [admitting] new states in D.C. and Puerto Rico, but the bigger issue is the ineptitude of Congress, and I got in this race because I was so disappointed in Congress,” Dooley continued. “I think it’s changed. It’s not working for the people the way it used to.”
The candidate and former college football coach went on to talk about how he believes the Senate has become self-serving and ineffective, without directly answering the question he was asked.
“We can’t even get issues that 85% of the country want through the finish line, and it always comes back to leadership in Congress,” Dooley added. “There’s too much careerism, where people have been up there too long. We got a lot of corruption going on, and mostly it’s the inaction, a lot of yelling and screaming, [and] nobody delivering results for the people. That’s why I got in this race.”
Dooley, who is preparing for a runoff election against Collins in June after neither candidate received 50% of the vote in May, added that Georgia voters are increasingly frustrated with the Senate.
“Let me tell you something—that’s the No. 1 thing voters are frustrated with in Georgia, and that’s why I put pen to paper on a Georgia-first contract on what’s going to lay out every decision I make and every vote I cast, and it’s resonating well with the Georgia people,” Dooley said.
Collins, who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives for two terms and voted three times to send the SAVE America Act to the Senate, has not publicly stated if he would push to abolish the filibuster if elected to the Senate.
The controversy over abolishing the filibuster comes after President Donald Trump, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and several House Republicans, such as Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to eliminate the rule to pass crucial voter ID legislation into law.
“Not passing the SAVE AMERICA ACT will lead to the the worst results for a political party in the HISTORY of the United States Senate,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “An Unrecoverable Death Wish!!! Likewise, the FILIBUSTER – TERMINATE IT NOW!”
Recent polling shows that over 70% of Americans support the SAVE America Act.
Collins and Dooley did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.
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