“I think that we need an expanded playbook in a way that we invite all ideas that we have basically look that we say look this is a moment where there are no bad ideas. A no bad idea brainstorm is what I’d like to call it. And in that no bad ideas brainstorm, we talk about what we need to do and think about doing around the Electoral College. We talk about the idea of Supreme Court reform, which includes expanding the Supreme Court… Let’s talk about statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C.”
That was former Vice President Kamala Harris, potential Democratic presidential candidate for 2028 — if so, she’d be the Democratic frontrunner say the latest average of polls compiled by RealClearPolling.com — basically saying the quiet part out loud on the Win With Black Women podcast on May 13 with host LaTosha Brown.
That is, Democrats have every intention of packing the Supreme Court, the House with five more seats (about one for D.C. and four for Puerto Rico), the Senate with four more seats (two for each new state) and bring the Supreme Court to as many as 13 or 21 justices.
In 2024, with D.C. and Puerto Rico as states, even through President Donald Trump would have still won the Electoral College, Republicans would have narrowly lost the House and Senate. The popular vote for the presidency would have been much closer.
And to do that, Harris would abolish the Senate filibuster, as she told Wisconsin Public Radio host Kate Archer Kent in September 2024: “I’ve been very clear, I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.”
It’s as plain as day that this is what Democrats will do the moment they are back in power, as it is the position of the presumptive Democratic frontrunner for 2028. This is no hypothetical. Republicans do not even need to speculate about what might happen not if, but when they eventually lose power.
No party rules forever. The GOP can’t and won’t win every election — and President Donald Trump is term-limited and can no longer run. The proposal Harris is outlining is practically inevitable to occur.
In fact, since Franklin Roosevelt, every time Democrats win the White House, they also win the House and Senate — a trifecta of power. Roosevelt had it, Harry Truman had it, John Kennedy had it, Lyndon Johnson had it, Jimmy Carter had it, Bill Clinton had it, Barack Obama had it and Joe Biden all had it. And often times with supermajorities to run the table on legislation.
That is why it was not until 2022 that Democrats, with a meager 50 to 50 plus the Vice President Senate majority, finally tried and failed to abolish the filibuster to pass their H.R. 5746 election takeover bill.
But looking at Congressional Republicans, particularly Senate Republicans, the answer appears they have no intention of doing anything about it.
There are no plans overturn the Senate parliamentarian and abolish the filibuster, do any talking filibusters or even to ensure every bit of legislation they need is put into the upcoming budget reconciliation bill — whether it is Iran war funding, White House ballroom funding, the Save America Act to require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and voter ID to vote.
Instead, Republicans appear content to sit back and wait for Democrats to act first — and then be dominated by Democratic one-party rule for a generation.
One leader not content with this outcome is President Trump, who recently called for Senate Republicans to in the very least replace the Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, writing on Truth Social on May 20, naming Democrats as “Dumocrats”: “Shockingly, Republicans have kept the very important position of ‘Parliamentarian’ in the hands of a woman, Elizabeth MacDonough, who was appointed, long ago, by Barack Hussein Obama and a vicious Lunatic known as Senator Harry Reid, who ran the Senate for the Dumocrats with an ‘iron fist.’ Over the years, she has been brutal to Republicans, but not so to the Dumocrats — So why has she not been replaced? There are many fair people who would be qualified for that vital job. The Republicans play a very soft game compared to the Dumocrats. It is their single biggest disadvantage in politics. The Dumocrats cheat, lie, and steal, especially when it comes to Votes in Elections, but stick together, whereas the Republicans allow the Elizabeth MacDonoughs of the World to stay in power, and brutalize us. We need THE SAVE AMERICA ACT passed, and NOW — And, likewise, kill the Filibuster, which would give us everything!”
Trump warned Democrats were waiting to do the same thing: “If we don’t pass at least one of these two provisions quickly, you will never see another Republican President again. The Dumocrats will end up with 2 additional States, D.C. and Puerto Rico, and all that entails, including 4 Senators, many Congressmen, and many additional Electoral Votes, and they will also get their dream of a packed United States Supreme Court with their most favorite number — 21 Justices. The Dumocrats will eliminate the Filibuster on the First Day that they get an opportunity to do so. The Republicans aren’t doing it because they say the Dumocrats will never do it, but the Republicans are WRONG. Get smart and tough Republicans, or you’ll all be looking for a job much sooner than you thought possible!”
President Trump is right. Here, again, Republicans don’t need to speculate. Just listen to what Kamala Harris said. When Democrats get back in power, they are going to run the table, pack the House, Senate and Supreme Court, open the borders, and make country-changing reforms to the electoral system — permanently. The question is what, if anything, Senate Republicans intend to do about it.
Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government.
