They are not backing down.
Many Democratic lawmakers, strategists, and aides believe the Senate filibuster changing is just a matter of time, even though it was defeated in the Senate last week and caused Democrats to direct their anger and outrage at Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ.) and Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) for opposing changes.
However, Brain Fallon, a former senior aide to Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) who currently serves as executive director of Demand Justice, an organization that advocates for a progressive judiciary, pointed out that Manchin and Sinema may be the last Senate Democrats to hold this position, saying he believed the pair would be “the last two members of the Senate Democratic Caucus that will ever support keeping the filibuster in its current form.”
He continued by saying it was “hard to imagine” anyone in the future being elected who wouldn’t conclude to get rid of the filibuster.
In the Democratic primaries, the idea of changing or abolishing the filibuster has taken root.
In Pennsylvania’s competitive Democratic primary, the only two leading candidates –– Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and centrist Conor Lamb –– have supported getting rid of the filibuster.
Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Senate Democratic primary candidate in Wisconsin, Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, and Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry have thrown their support behind scrapping the filibuster.
Fallon also pointed to others who supported getting rid of the filibuster, including Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Val Demings a Democratic Rep. who is “trying to run a more moderate campaign in Florida.”
Fallon concluded his remarks saying, it was “a matter of when, not a matter of if,” Senate Democrats would be changing the filibuster, saying if Democrats were able to win “another few seats in 2022 [and] hold the House” they would “quickly move to adjust the filibuster.”
