Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who is challenging Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to be the next Senate majority leader, said Friday he wants to abolish the filibuster and ruled out a potential presidential run in 2028.
Van Hollen, speaking to reporters at the What’s Next conference in Denver, argued that legislation should pass the Senate with simple-majority votes and that the filibuster, which requires senators to muster 60 votes to pass most legislation, is “undemocratic.”
“My personal opinion is that we need democracy in the United States Senate and that means allowing ultimately a majority of senators to answer the call of the American people, so that means 51 votes,” Van Hollen said.
“My personal view has been all along that the filibuster is an antidemocratic — small ‘d’ — provision. It’s not in our Constitution. It was put in there by senators to enhance their power over the power of the people,” he added.
We’ve already seen how a Republican minority in the Senate (during Biden) can prevent a Democratic majority from delivering on legislative agenda for anything that can be filibustered.
Exactly - all the more reason to ditch the filibuster, pass legislation, make them veto it and take responsibility for a veto. Come 2028, if we have a great option for President then it’ll be a clean sweep trifecta for Democrats.