Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaks during a press conference on May 23, 2024. (Valerie Plesch/The Washington Post)
The Senate voted down a bipartisan border security deal on Thursday for the second time as Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) attempted to put the GOP on the defensive on a core campaign issue ahead of the 2024 election.
The bill failed 43-50 as nearly every Republican joined a handful of Democrats in voting against the measure. The no votes included two senators, Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.), who originally negotiated the deal and criticized the vote as political gamesmanship.
Schumer teed up the vote as Democrats try to mitigate a political vulnerability this election cycle — voters’ concerns about the U.S.-Mexico border and belief that Republicans would handle the issue better than Democrats.
“To my Republican colleagues: You wanted this border bill, today we vote on this border bill, and it’s time to show you’re serious about solving the problem,” Schumer said ahead of the vote.
With elections less than six months away, the vote also marks a shift for the Democratic-controlled Senate into campaign mode, with more messaging votes to put Republicans on the spot expected in the coming weeks. Democrats will soon consider legislation making contraception a federal right and probably another bill protecting access to in vitro fertilization, known as IVF, as they turn a spotlight on some Republicans’ unpopular positions on reproductive rights.
The GOP-controlled House, meanwhile, is lining up votes Republicans believe will divide and hurt Democrats ahead of November in recent weeks, including ones on Israel, crime and the border.
Republicans have hammered President Joe Biden and Democrats on immigration as record-high numbers of migrants crossed into the United States late last year. (Those numbers have dipped in recent months.) The bipartisan deal would provide significantly more resources for border enforcement, make it harder to qualify for asylum in the United States and shut the border to most crossers during periods of high traffic. The bill’s support collapsed earlier this year after Donald Trump signaled opposition to it and his allies said it would hurt him if it passed in an election year.
Republicans, including some moderates, dismissed the border vote this week as “political theater” and said Democrats would not be able to change their image with voters on the issue.
“This is not trying to accomplish something; this is about messaging now,” said Lankford, who brokered the bipartisan deal that Schumer held the vote on. “Let’s not play games with it; let’s sit down and actually solve it.”
Sinema criticized her Democratic colleagues on the floor for playing a “cynical political game” by forcing the vote. Several moderate Republicans who backed the deal in February voted against it on Thursday, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah).
Senate Democrats, who narrowly control the chamber with 51 seats, face a brutal map in November and must defend seats in multiple red and purple states, including Ohio, Montana and Wisconsin. They are all but guaranteed to lose in ruby-red West Virginia, where Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) is retiring.
In an interview last month, Schumer acknowledged there was very little room for error for Democrats but predicted they would hold the majority next year.
“We have to win every one of our incumbent states,” Schumer said.
“Each of our candidates in battleground states is running very well, and I believe we will keep the Senate,” he said.
Democrats expressed frustration that Republicans continue to criticize their handling of the border, given their opposition to the legislation that had been endorsed by the union representing border patrol agents and slammed by immigrant rights groups.
“Spare us the crocodile tears. Vote for the thing that you say you are for,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said at a news conference Wednesday aimed at highlighting the bill’s ability to crack down on the flow of fentanyl into the country.
If Republicans were to vote against the measure, Schatz added, they would “forfeit their right to discuss the border.”
The Senate will also soon consider legislation that creates a federal right to access contraception, Schumer said on Wednesday, as Democrats seek in June to spotlight some Republicans’ support for unpopular restrictions on abortion and reproductive rights. Trump has also stirred controversy in recent days with his seemingly conflicting statements on birth control.
Republicans have opposed the contraception legislation in the past, on the grounds that it could protect medications that induce abortions. Trump recently said he was “looking into” whether he supported restrictions on birth control, but later clarified that he would “never” support a birth control ban or restrictions.
“That that will be controversial speaks to this moment and what’s at stake in this upcoming election,” Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) said of the birth-control bill.
Reproductive rights have become a political liability for Republicans in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which led many states to ban abortion. Earlier this year, Alabama’s highest court ruled that embryos created by IVF are children, causing clinics to pause treatment for fear of prosecution. Many Republicans running for office have since clarified that they do not support banning the technology.
“Reproductive freedom is a major issue for people all across the country,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “It’s important for us to continue to show that we’re fighting for it.”
Republicans said they believed the border and contraception votes were merely political.
“He’s using the Senate floor to give all his vulnerable Democrats something to vote on,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said. “There is no threat to contraception nationally. … It’s all made-up stuff.”
“I think clearly the Democrats have figured out they can’t run on their record so they’re going to run on this border package that has no chance of passing,” said Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who said he had not reviewed the contraception bill yet. “I’m sure they’re going to run on scaring people about abortion, contraception. … I think most Americans see through it.”
The White House has also sought to highlight Republicans’ positions on abortion and neutralize voters’ perceptions of them as mishandling the border.
Biden has issued several executive actions aimed at the border and immigration and this week called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to urge them to support the legislation.
Trump currently leads with voters on immigration by a large margin. In a recent ABC News poll, 47% of respondents said they trusted Trump to address the border, while 30% said so for Biden. Multiple surveys have found that immigration or border security is tied with or just ahead of the economy or inflation as the most important issue to voters.
Leigh Ann Caldwell contributed to this report.
