A little while ago, I wrote about how the former U.S. Senate Majority & Minority Leader, Harry Reid (D. NV), gave the 2020 Democratic candidates a new litmus test when it gets to getting shit done once elected:
Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said this week that should Democrats take control of the upper chamber during the 2020 election, there’s one thing they could do to further efforts to tackle climate change: Kill the filibuster.
“The No. 1 priority is climate change,” Reid told The Daily Beast’s Sam Stein in an interview published Wednesday. “There’s nothing that affects my children, grandchildren, and their children, right now, more than climate.”
Some of the Democrats running to unseat President Donald Trumpnext year have touted the idea as a means to end the legislative tactic that effectively mandates a supermajority of 60 senators be on board with any legislation so it can pass in the chamber. But other 2020 candidates have said they’re unsure if that’s the right path forward, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has said he’s “not crazy” about the idea.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a 2020 presidential candidate and the only Democrat running on a campaign largely focused on climate change, had earlier called for the end of the filibuster, saying in February that it was “an artifact of a bygone era” that somehow “got grafted on in this culture of the Senate.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has also expressed support in her campaign for ending the legislative tactic.
And I am proud to say that my U.S. Senator and one of my top choices in the primary, pass the test:
Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris said she’d fight to end the filibuster if Republicans obstructed the passage of a Green New Deal.
At a CNN town hall on the climate crisis Wednesday, the California senator cast doubt over the possibility of bipartisan support for sweeping climate legislation and said she’d consider scrapping the 60-vote threshold for ending debate on legislation in the Senate.
Doing so would likely require a Democratic majority in the Senate.
“If Republicans continue to block progress, I’ll get rid of the filibuster to pass a Green New Deal,” her campaign tweeted shortly after she made the remarks on TV.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who until last month was running as the climate candidate in the 2020 Democratic primary, made eliminating the filibuster a top priority. In April, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a top-polling presidential contender, joined him. Last month, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) told Pod Save America he would end the filibuster to pass gun control legislation.
Harris also joins the ranks with former Julian Castro, Pete Buttigieg, Tom Steyer, and even former Governor Steve Bullock. Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, and Joe Biden don’t sound open to getting rid of the filibuster to stop Moscow Mitch from making their Presidencies failures. What’s even more insane is Bernie Sanders, a man who has constantly called for political revolution and criticized the Democratic Party’s failure to pass a progressive agenda is still too timid on this issue. You can’t have a political revolution if you don’t support getting rid of Moscow Mitch’s weapon to make him the Grim Reaper of a progressive agenda. Harris gets this and she remains in my top choices along with Warren over Biden and Sanders. Luckily, Indivisible is making abolishing the 60 vote filibuster rule a bigger issue. Click here to learn more.