{"id":190,"date":"2026-06-04T23:41:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=190"},"modified":"2026-06-04T23:41:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:41:50","slug":"trumps-primary-involvement-sparks-vote-a-rama-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=190","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s primary involvement sparks vote-a-rama drama"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Some call them the \u201cYOLO caucus,\u201d the slang term for the phrase \u201cYou only live once.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Others say this is how some members of this growing group of Senate Republicans have always legislated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Either way, Thursday\u2019s high drama vote-a-rama highlighted the complicated equation of the Senate Republicans\u2019 slim majority and the anxiety over the upcoming midterm elections, with President Donald Trump\u2019s heavy thumb on the political scale serving as an additional pressure point.<\/p>\n

A group of seven Republican senators \u2014 either casualties of Trump\u2019s involvement in the 2026 elections or a few facing tough reelection fights \u2014emerged early during Thursday\u2019s marathon vote series on the GOP\u2019s reconciliation bill for immigration enforcement as a possible thorn in Senate Majority Leader John Thune\u2019s side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTiming is everything,\u201d Thune told reporters this week when asked about the growing rift between both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. \u201cAnd we\u2019re trying to get some stuff done up here, things that the White House wants done, [and they] get more complicated with the weekly announcements.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The main point of contention the group has with the reconciliation bill involves a separate land mine announcement the White House and Senate Republicans have navigated for weeks: the Justice Department\u2019s $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund, which angered many in the conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though the DOJ has since walked back the fund \u2014 acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers Tuesday it is being scrapped \u2014 the impact of that announcement lingers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The group includes Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a moderate Republican who is retiring at the end of this term; Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas, who Trump successfully primaried out of their seats; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a longtime Trump critic; and Susan Collins of Maine, Jon Husted of Ohio and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, who all face increasingly competitive races this November.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tillis, who announced his retirement last year to be able to \u201cspeak truth\u201d to Trump and the White House, unsuccessfully pushed an amendment Thursday to block the $1.8 billion fund by diverting that money to fraud enforcement efforts. That was rejected 15-84, with Democrats saying the Tillis amendment wouldn\u2019t actually prohibit the fund and would likely create a slush fund by another name under the guise of fraud enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cassidy, Collins, Cornyn, Husted, Murkowski and Sullivan backed his amendment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be disruptive to the leader, but we\u2019ve got to have a treatment for this fund before we get off this bill. I mean, I certainly won\u2019t support getting off of it until we do,\u201d Tillis told reporters ahead of the vote-a-rama.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Similarly, Murkowski told reporters she wasn\u2019t \u201cmaking any promises\u201d when asked if she\u2019d support the final bill if the $1.8 billion fund hadn\u2019t been addressed.<\/p>\n

Vote-a-rama drama<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The drama started before the first vote of the vote-a-rama, when a motion to recommit the legislation from Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., stalled on the Senate floor for nearly three hours while Cassidy, Husted and Sullivan held off on voting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During that stretch, Cassidy engaged in several animated conversations with Thune and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming on the floor and could be seen chatting with the Senate\u2019s parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough.<\/p>\n

He eventually voted \u201cnay\u201d in line with Republicans, which allowed Husted, Collins and Sullivan to vote with Democrats, without halting the reconciliation bill before the vote-a-rama officially even began. The Schumer motion was defeated 49-50.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Cassidy, a gastroenterologist, became the first incumbent senator to lose a regularly scheduled primary election since 2012 after Trump endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow in the race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cassidy voted to convict Trump during his 2021 impeachment trial and wasn\u2019t able regain the president\u2019s good graces even after he gave the key committee vote in confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of Health and Human Services last year.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Cornyn faced Trump\u2019s political wrath and lost this cycle to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after Trump issued an eleventh-hour endorsement of Paxton last month.<\/p>\n

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., the Republican Policy Committee chair, said, \u201cThe Cassidy and Cornyn anti-endorsements of their opponents really deflated a lot of people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certain instances where you have to put the political lens on, and I think they just do that less,\u201d she said, referring to senators leaving next year. \u201cAre they persuadable? Yes, I would say all of the ones that I\u2019ve seen are, have always been, and continue to be team players, and want the team to do well, and know that preserving the majority, in their hearts, they know that that\u2019s the right thing for the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they want to be a force of destruction,\u201d she added\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Husted, meanwhile, who faces Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio in the November election, broke with Trump on two votes related to the weaponization fund and ballroom funding authorization. A from Fox News on Wednesday found 53 percent of respondents backed Brown to Husted\u2019s 45 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Collins, Senate Democrats\u2019 top target in the November elections, is in a close race with Graham Platner, the likely Democratic nominee for Maine\u2019s Senate seat. Platner\u2019s campaign circulated a memo Wednesday showing a survey taken early this week found him with a 4-point lead over Collins and said his campaign had \u201cseen some of the strongest fundraising of the entire campaign\u201d in recent days. Still, the Maine Democrat faces controversies, including reports that he sent sexually explicit texts to other women while married.<\/p>\n

And Sullivan, in perhaps the reddest of what are considered to be swing seats, faces former Rep. Mary Peltola, a moderate who lost her at-large House seat by less than 3 percentage points in 2024, even as Trump carried the state by 13 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A majority of this group of Republicans defected from several of the amendments early on during the vote-a-rama.<\/p>\n

The group could continue to be a headache for the White House should a Trump-written amendment to include his election overhaul bill be attached to the reconciliation legislation.<\/p>\n

That amendment, filed by Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., would likely need 60 votes. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters early Thursday there would be an \u201camendment drafted by the president,\u201d highlighting a push from the White House.<\/p>\n

Several of the group, including Tillis, Collins and Murkowski, have problems with the newest iteration of the election overhaul bill.<\/p>\n

Daniela Altimari, Mary Ellen McIntire, Jacob Fulton and Aris Folley contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Immigration budget bill off to a slow start in Senate<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some call them the \u201cYOLO caucus,\u201d the slang term for the phrase \u201cYou only live once.\u201d  Others say this is how some members of this growing group of Senate Republicans have always legislated.  Either way, Thursday\u2019s high drama vote-a-rama highlighted the complicated equation of the Senate Republicans\u2019 slim majority and the anxiety over the upcoming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump’s primary involvement sparks vote-a-rama drama - American Industry Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=190\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump’s primary involvement sparks vote-a-rama drama - American Industry Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some call them the \u201cYOLO caucus,\u201d the slang term for the phrase \u201cYou only live once.\u201d  Others say this is how some members of this growing group of Senate Republicans have always legislated.  Either way, Thursday\u2019s high drama vote-a-rama highlighted the complicated equation of the Senate Republicans\u2019 slim majority and the anxiety over the upcoming […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=190\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Industry Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-04T23:41:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/?p=190#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/?p=190\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f31b66192ea99275704b1c4c1195d2bd\"},\"headline\":\"Trump’s primary involvement sparks vote-a-rama drama\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-04T23:41:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/?p=190\"},\"wordCount\":1124,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/?p=190#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/e80cbfef0f065101d4819ac8205d494d.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Congress\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/?p=190#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/?p=190\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/?p=190\",\"name\":\"Trump’s primary involvement sparks vote-a-rama drama - American Industry Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/?p=190#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/?p=190#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/e80cbfef0f065101d4819ac8205d494d.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-04T23:41:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f31b66192ea99275704b1c4c1195d2bd\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/?p=190#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/?p=190\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/?p=190#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/e80cbfef0f065101d4819ac8205d494d.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/e80cbfef0f065101d4819ac8205d494d.jpeg\",\"width\":1620,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"UNITED STATES - JUNE 4: Sen. 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