It’s happening, at least if Senator Chris Van Hollen (MD) has anything to say about it and if he becomes the Senate Democrats’ Majority Leader in the coming days or weeks.
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During a media Q & A on Friday afternoon, the Maryland Dem was asked about the future of the filibuster with his party shortly taking over the reins of Congress.
For the first time since Republicans’ devastating loss last Tuesday, a Democrat said out loud what so many of us have been predicting: Van Hollen said that if he is given the gavel in the United States Senate, the filibuster is as good as gone.
BREAKING: Sen Van Hollen says he will nuke the filibuster if elected majority leader https://t.co/f4PW9iNkNy
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 13, 2026
“I believe we, my personal opinion is that we need democracy in the United States Senate and that means allowing, ultimately, the majority of senators to answer the call of the American people,” he said.
“That means 51 votes,” Van Hollen continued. “My personal view has been all along that the filibuster is an antiquated, ‘antidemocratic,’ small D provision. It’s not in our Constitution. It was put in by Senators to enhance their power over the power of the people.”
“We need to have a system where you have lots of debate, but at the end of the day a majority reflecting the will of the people should be able to hold a vote on an important measure,” he added.
He went on to say that discussions still need to happen within the Democrat caucus on which measures this would apply to, but said that on those about “democracy protection,” it was a must. He also pointed to the far-leftist candidates in 2026 who ran on the power of the people/democracy over “the power of money,” guiding his thinking.
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As RedState wrote on Thursday, Sen. Van Hollen made his big move, announcing that he will challenge Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (NY) automatic election to the top leadership spot.
In a statement, he said the results of the off-year elections sent a message: that “the status quo…isn’t working for working people,” and he has discerned the Democrats needed “new leadership.” In other words, not Schumer.
Then earlier on Friday, my colleague Nick Arama wrote about the massive disarray both the House and Senate Democrats find themselves in; even presumed Speaker of the House, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), was subjected to heckling and profane invectives being thrown his way by leftists during a liberal conference Friday.
As far as the filibuster going bye-bye once Democrats were back in control…
If only someone had told us. Oh, wait, everyone did. And President Trump called it, before the midterms.
Watch as he describes what Republicans would reap immediately by ditching the filibuster, in a speech he made during his barnstorming tour across the country.
Watch:
🚨 HOLY CRAP! Senator Chris Van Hollen says he’ll TERMINATE the filibuster if Democrats make him Senate Majority Leader — Semafor
And so THERE IT IS. TRUMP CALLED IT.
He’s running against Chuck Schumer and has already said, “we need to get rid of it.”
Democrats will hold 56… pic.twitter.com/Qm9L72vKQV
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 13, 2026
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“You terminate it,” Trump said, “you’ll get Kate’s Law, you’ll get stuff that you don’t even remember. It’ll be so beautiful…and we’ll never lose an election again, because we’ll have great safeguards…You’ll have voter ID, you’ll have proof of citizenship, you’ll have everything that you want.”
“That will be legitimate,” he continued, “because they [Democrats] can’t win without cheating – their policies are so bad.”
Vice President JD Vance sings from the same hymnal on this, also, as he showed in an interview back in July.
It might sound like a broken record at this point, but conservatives have been saying we need to scrap the filibuster for months. And why was that?
One reason, which Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) powerfully shared more than once, was to get legislation like the SAVE America Act passed – something the GOP in the House managed to square away months ago. It should have already been on Pres. Trump’s desk, and the ink dried on the signature.
On a March floor speech in the Senate, Lee said, in part
“They [the Democrats] say, ‘Well, it’s [voting] a constitutionally-protected right. Darn right it is! And it’s our job to make sure that that’s protected. But the fact that it’s a constitutionally-protected right in no way, shape, or form means that we have to make it easy to vote, and screw the rest. Let’s let them cheat.”
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He continued:
Lee said that the Dems “ignore that when we allow [voter fraud] to happen,” the American people are in effect disenfranchised “because their vote matters less.” The votes of people “who might not be eligible to do so” in their district cancel them out, he said.
He ridiculed the idea of requiring an ID as “disenfranchisement,” asking whether that also could be said about the process when people try to get a new job.
He was so right to mock the Left on this wordplay stunt. And it is disgraceful that Republicans did not scrap the very thing standing in the way of free and fair elections for all Americans before the election.
Sen. Lee speaks for many with his reaction to Van Hollen’s making the Dems’ not-so-big secret public:
Should’ve done that Now they’re doing it
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) November 13, 2026
Editor’s Note: Republicans are fighting for election integrity by requiring proper identification to vote. It’s common sense, yet Democrats are spreading lies about the impact of such a measure.
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