Republicans running in Senate primaries have a new litmus test for who the Trumpiest candidate is: Do you support nuking the filibuster?
President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on Senate Republicans to abolish the filibuster — something that would require support from a majority of senators. Trump also made this push during his first term, but his efforts now have been significantly more intense.
Republican Senate leadership has been adamantly against using the so-called “nuclear option” to end the 60-vote threshold for most legislation, and much of the conference is as well. But the 42-day government shutdown made Trump more aggressive in telling Republicans to change the rules to allow for a simple majority vote.
There currently aren’t enough Republicans in the Senate who support the nuclear option, but that could change in 2026. A NOTUS survey of Republican Senate candidates across the country found that, in most cases, there is at least openness to abolishing the filibuster — if not outright support to do so.
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NOTUS reached out to and examined the public statements of Republican candidates in Kentucky, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire and North Carolina. Only two candidates hadn’t said anything about the filibuster and did not respond to a request for comment: Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr and former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
Three candidates expressed support for eliminating the filibuster: Nate Morris of Kentucky, Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia and Michael Whatley of North Carolina.
In a statement to NOTUS, Whatley said: “All options must be on the table, including the removal of the filibuster, to move forward with Making America Affordable Again — cutting taxes for working families, lowering prices, achieving energy dominance, reindustrializing America, and bringing good-paying jobs back home.”
“Democrats have no agenda other than opposing President Donald Trump and will do everything in their power to block his efforts to put America First — even when their plan makes our nation completely unaffordable. We cannot allow Washington gridlock to stand in the way of the mandate voters gave last November,” he said.
“Ending the filibuster is about getting tough,” Morris said in a post on X. “Democrats will end the filibuster, the only question is: Will Republicans be smart enough and strong enough to act first?”
In a separate post on X, Morris was much more direct: “We need to kill the filibuster.”
Carter’s stance on the filibuster, also posted to X, was likewise straight and to the point: “I stand with President Trump - TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!”
Other candidates expressed openness to at least modifying the filibuster.
A spokesperson for Derek Dooley, who is running for Senate in Georgia, said he was “open to reforms that make the Senate work better for the American people.”
Rep. Mike Collins, another candidate for Senate in Georgia, said in a statement: “Modifying the filibuster would be the worst possible outcome for Democrats — voter ID, no healthcare for illegals, no cash bail, lower insurance costs and all of President Trump’s agenda would pass — and that’s what we need to deliver for the American people.”
Three candidates said they were strictly opposed to eliminating the filibuster.
A spokesperson for former Rep. Mike Rogers, who is running for Senate in Michigan, said he is “opposed to eliminating the filibuster.”
Similarly, both Republican candidates in New Hampshire, John E. Sununu and Scott Brown — both of whom served in the Senate previously — oppose eliminating the filibuster.
“The filibuster was created to protect the interests of states and protect the interests of small states. I’m not for getting rid of it,” Sununu told NOTUS in an interview.
Brown told WMUR that he opposed eliminating the filibuster for the same reason.
“I like the president. I like a lot of what he’s doing. But I’ve always told him that I would give him my opinion on a whole host of things. But no, I believe the filibuster is what separates us from the House, and if we do that now — what if the Democrats are in charge in ’28, the presidency, the House, the Senate?” Brown said. “They’ll eliminate the filibuster for good. They’ll stack the Supreme Court, and then they’ll take the territories like D.C. and Puerto Rico and make them states.”
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