U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) on Sunday confirmed that the Senate is considering using the “talking filibuster” to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which earlier this month was rebranded the SAVE America Act by President Donald Trump.
While U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has sponsored the current version of the bill since last year, Hagerty joined a growing number of Republicans who co-sponsor the bill last month, and speaking to Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo, the senator said the new support by U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) would enable Republicans to move forward.
“I’m one of the first to applaud Susan Collins for coming on board, that gets us the votes necessary to do it if we can get it to the floor,” said Hagerty.
“We’re looking at the talking filibuster,” he later confirmed to Bartiromo. “It’s something that has not been used in a long, long time, it’s a complicated process, but I think we’re going to look at every way we possibly can to get this to the floor, to defeat the Democrats’ obstructionism, and do something that is common sense for America.”
Under current Senate rules, the talking filibuster would see Republicans who support the voter integrity bill would force a debate, speak continuously until obtaining the 60 votes necessary to pass the SAVE America Act.
Hagerty told Bartiromo, “We’ve gone through it as a conference, and now that we have Susan on board, I think we’re going to be laser focused on this, and any other method that we can utilize to get this onto the floor, because this is obviously something the American people want.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty says Republicans are looking at weakening the filibuster to ram the SAVE America Act through the Senate (Trump, who has called for "nationalizing" elections, has been pushing hard for the bill ahead of the midterms) pic.twitter.com/7Tq6mGwyJ3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 15, 2026
He also appeared to suggest Democratic senators may be swayed after seeing the political fallout to prolonged opposition to the legislation during a talking filibuster.
“Who are the Democrats in the Senate representing? Over 70 percent of Democrats want this,” said Hagerty. He later added, “They’re so detached from reality it’s just amazing.”
Noting that the legislation would only require those seeking to vote in federal elections to be American citizens and provide identification, Hagerty suggested Democrats’ opposition stems from the party’s immigration agenda.
“It seems like it should be a no-brainer, but it’s not, and the reason that it’s not is because the Democrats under the Biden administration flooded this country with tens of millions of illegal aliens,” said Hagerty. “They want chaos in the elections, they want no voter ID. You’ve got to really ask yourself who they represent and why are they trying to do this.”
Ultimately, Hagerty predicted the legislation would result in increased voter turnout.
“I think what we’ll have, if we actually implement it, is a higher turnout in elections, because people will have more confidence that the election, that their vote, is going to be sacred, is going to be safe, and we’re going to have voter integrity,” said Hagerty.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the legislation on Thursday.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “Sen. Bill Hagerty” by Sen Bill Hagerty.
