The Odd Backlash to Kamala Harris’s Support for Filibuster Reform

This is one issue on which Kamala Harris has been very consistent. Photo: Julia Nikhinson/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Dating back to 2022, when Democrats controlled the Senate and had the theoretical power to carve out new exceptions to the filibuster by a simple majority vote in the Senate, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were on record for doing just that to restore the federal abortion rights previously secured by Roe v. Wade (as was also the case with respect to voting rights legislation). It didn’t happen, because sorta-kinda-Democrats Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema opposed changing the filibuster, which was one of the sources of their leverage in a closely divided Senate.

Then Republicans flipped the House, which eliminated any possibility of abortion rights legislation making it out of Congress.

On Tuesday, Harris, for the first time as a presidential nominee, was asked on Wisconsin Public Radio if she still favored a filibuster carve-out to restore Roe’s protections, and predictably she said she did. There’s been a lot of media attention paid to this reiteration of her long-standing position, and it’s certain to draw fire from Republicans as part of their defensive effort to label Democrats as the “extremists” on abortion, even though it’s Donald Trump and his Supreme Court nominees who put the country in this position in the first place.

As long as Republicans are willing to repledge allegiance to the filibuster (which, ironically, Trump has long opposed) and forswear any carve-out of their own for legislation to ban abortion nationally, this could give them an argument to make, though it would probably still be prudent for them to change the subject to immigration or the economy instead of drawing attention to their complicity in the reversal of Roe and the passage of state abortion bans wherever it was possible. There’s also the question of how much intense pressure Trump and his party would be under from their ancient allies in the anti-abortion movement to change their minds on both the filibuster and a national ban if it’s Republicans who win a trifecta in November.

In a battle of 2025 hypotheticals, it’s unclear how much of a chance Democrats would have to do what Harris has promised to try to do. For one thing, the odds of Democrats hanging onto the Senate even if they retain the White House are low, and a Senate organized by the GOP isn’t about to allow a vote on abortion rights. If Democrats somehow win a trifecta, restricting filibuster powers would require every single Democratic senator, which could be problematic (yes, there are two Republican senators who profess to be pro-choice, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, but both oppose reforming the filibuster).

The good news for abortion rights advocates is that Manchin and Sinema are both retiring; Manchin reminded Democrats how little they will miss him by responding to Harris’s statement about an abortion rights carve-out with a ludicrous tirade referring to the filibuster as “the holy grail of democracy.” Pro-filibuster ultras like the West Virginian never mention that the Senate has already created multiple carve-outs for executive and judicial nominees, for Supreme Court nominees, and for budget legislation. Restricting the right to filibuster with respect to fundamental rights like bodily autonomy or voting doesn’t seem like much of a reach.

We’ll soon know if Republicans decide to make this a presidential campaign issue or instead continue to follow Trump’s lead in bobbing and weaving and lying and changing the subject when asked about abortion policy. But for all the talk of Kamala Harris changing policy positions, this is one on which she has been very consistent.