OPINION: Why I changed my mind about the filibuster

July 27, 2026 OPINION: Why I changed my mind about the filibuster The 60-vote Senate rule forces compromise. Democrats were wrong to attack it. The Washington Post By : John Fetterman It’s not often you hear someone in D.C. admit they were wrong, let alone horribly wrong — and the entire Democratic Party was, including me. When Democrats had the presidency and a majority in both chambers, they were frustrated with the 60-vote threshold needed to advance legislation. Senate Democrats attempted to end the filibuster to push through President Joe Biden’s agenda — an effort I fully supported during my 2022 campaign. Halfway through my first term, I now recognize how important the filibuster is and the state our country would be in without it. I thought ending the filibuster was necessary to deliver results for working families. I thought it was unlikely for Republicans in the minority to find common ground on legislation Democrats were proposing. I thought Democrats were not being ruthless the way Republicans were, and we needed to be on that level if we were going to relieve the anger that voters were feeling. Upon reflection, the pursuit of those short-term wins clouded the bigger picture and lasting impact of a Senate without the filibuster — a Senate that ignored the voices of the minority and everyday people. History has vindicated former senators Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) and Joe Manchin III (West Virginia), two people who were vilified by the Democratic Party for their support of the filibuster and whose courageous efforts damaged their political careers. The rule is a critical line of defense that prevents President Donald Trump from having a fill-in-the-blank government with new laws, deregulation or procedures of its choosing. And while I was once vocal in criticizing Manchin and many of his decisions in the Senate, I now wholeheartedly agree with his assessment that scrapping the filibuster is part of “extreme election-year politics that put party power over everything else.” We cannot become a smaller version of the House of Representatives. Even with the filibuster intact, Biden and Senate Democrats delivered huge wins for working families. Several of those successes — like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and legislation to help veterans exposed to toxins in Iraq and Afghanistan — were the result of bipartisanship and compromise. Senate Democrats could not have passed these important pieces of legislation along party lines and had to work across the aisle. We find ourselves in the same situation now with the power dynamic flipped. Trump’s victory and Republicans taking control of both chambers of Congress quickly showed how chaotic a simple majority vote could be in the Senate. Media outlets and political pundits are routinely alarmed and outraged over the constant churn of new policies from the current administration. And if Americans are horrified now, imagine what could be law today if Democrats had eliminated the filibuster. We’d have the Save America Act by now, which I do not support . We could have extreme policies such as nationwide abortion restrictions, backpedaling on LGBT rights, repeal of birthright citizenship and limited voting rights across the country. With a government trifecta firmly in place, many provisions of Project 2025 would have easily been enacted. Republicans could fundamentally change the entire government and country with a simple majority vote. The one thing that has stopped many unpopular policies since the beginning of 2025 isn’t the Democrats — it is the filibuster. With the midterms approaching, Democrats could take back control of Congress. If we win the Senate, we will not have enough votes to override the 60-vote threshold on our own and will once again have to find common ground with our Republican colleagues, assuming the Democratic Party’s narrative on the filibuster remains what it has become under Trump: that we love it. We will need to abandon our worst impulses as a party and work together to find solutions to the problems Americans face. Some of my colleagues, including myself, have been frustrated when engaging with the minority. But that process isn’t a bug — it’s one of the best features of the Senate. We have a great democracy that is imperfect, but it requires working together. If we don’t do that willingly, the filibuster will force us to. That’s the way it should be.