Among online activists and in some corners of the Republican Party, mike lee He is being heralded as a MAGA champion willing to pressure his own party to adopt tougher tactics or risk political suicide.
But inside the Senate, the Utahn’s scorched-earth, hyper-online methods are stoking a wave of mostly personal animosity among GOP colleagues who believe his plan to pursue legislation to change how federal elections are conducted is wrong and potentially damaging to the party’s prospects in the midterms.
They believe he has no realistic path to passing the Save America Act, and they see him as seeking personal attention at the expense of stoking ongoing intraparty fights, according to five Republicans granted anonymity to speak candidly about their aide.
The senator said, “This seems like a selfish attempt to elevate yourself at the expense of your Republican colleagues, and I have no patience for that kind of thing.” Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said of Lee’s social media strategy in an interview. Tillis, a retired lawmaker who was not one of the five to speak privately, lamented a lack of “strategic clarity” on Lee’s part in the final game for the election debate.
Lee, however, shows no signs of self-doubt in news conferences and floor speeches — and, more importantly, in a steady stream of late-night X streams and social-media posts — that the Save America Act is nothing less than a make-or-break moment for American democracy.
“It would be a suicidal move for us as Senate Republicans, for Republicans in general, if we don’t put everything we have into this,” Lee said at a news conference this week. “We need to debate this for as long as it takes to get it done.”
Lee’s office did not respond to a request for an interview with the senator or an extended message seeking comment about the criticism he is receiving from colleagues.
‘He is hurting us’
The inside-outsider divide that has emerged in recent weeks is the culmination of a long political evolution of Lee’s personality. He was once seen as a bookish conservative with liberal leanings, but now he has emerged as the Senate GOP’s most staunch social-media poster — and a darling of the online right.
But it’s his strategy around the elections bill, which President Donald Trump has called his “No. 1 priority,” that has soured some of his relationships inside the Senate. Some Republican colleagues compared him to Senator Rand Paul – a Kentucky gadfly who also has a history of stoking frustration within Senate GOP ranks.
Republicans have circulated Lee’s online posts, including one that said if a senator does not support his strategy of passing an election bill “you may need to replace them.” Such discussion has led some to suggest that Lee, who was part of the bipartisan coalition that helped pass criminal justice bills during Trump’s first term, will have difficulty getting legislation passed in the future.
According to two Republicans, frustration has grown to such an extent that some GOP senators are privately wondering whether they might remove him as chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Many other colleagues dismissed this as mere nonsense.
“He’s hurting us,” said one of the two Republicans.
Lee appeared to distance himself from the social media strategy when a Politico reporter asked him during a press conference this week about his Republican colleagues’ concerns and whether anyone had contacted him directly.
“Every time I talk to activists, people who support it, I’m like a broken record telling them, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, and I recommend focusing on the stimulus and the positive elements of the bill,” Lee said. “They do what they do. It is what it is.”
Tillis rejected Lee’s reply: “You’re asking people to be nice when you post a statement that says you should challenge him in the primary? How does that work?”
Along with a group of GOP senators against bypassing the 60-vote filibuster threshold, Lee has argued that forcing Democrats into a “negotiated filibuster” would ultimately force them to negotiate and surrender. That doesn’t make sense to many of his colleagues, who don’t see Democrats ever providing enough votes to pass the bill.
And they fear Lee is selling a fantasy to his online followers, who believe the failure should be at least partly blamed on Republican weakness, not the opposition of Democrats.
“It’s clicks,” one Republican senator said in an interview when asked what Lee wanted to achieve. “He goes too far…he has almost no self-awareness.”
‘Maximum success in Senate’
But Lee’s supporters believe his efforts have yielded at least some results. senate majority leader John Thune Agreed to withdraw the bill and begin debate without a clear end date – something that is unheard of in the modern Senate. And the GOP perked up this week when minority leaders chuck schumer Told reporters that Democrats were not opposed to photo ID requirements.
Lee’s former staffer Rachel Bovard, now a vice president at the Conservative Partnership Institute, said her former boss “wants to represent a part of the base that feels unheard.”
“I think it’s encouraging for a lot of people to see that a United States senator can still speak for them, that the Senate can still speak for them,” he said.
Lee credited pressure from his own army of online supporters for Thune’s decision to hold the Senate floor this weekend. He has credited the then-Majority Leader for implementing a version of the talking filibuster.
“If someone says X isn’t real, that’s bullshit,” he said during a late-night stream on the social-media platform this week.
Representative. chip roy (R-Texas), who authored the Save America Act in the House, said he and Lee “worked together procedurally to set up the bill for maximum success in the Senate – and now Mike is single-handedly trying to get the U.S. Senate to actually do the work and get the debate.”
“For those senators who are saying that Mike Lee is doing this to get attention – that is complete nonsense and they should have the right to call the President and tell him that,” he said in a text message. “But it’s the Senate, that’s why.”
Several Senate Republicans have praised Lee online and have appeared with him at news conferences this week. But many other Republican aides have kept their distance, not understanding how he wants to end the fight. A sixth GOP senator, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not personally criticize Lee, but described the process he initiated as a “very chaotic situation.”
“He sticks to things,” the senator said, describing Lee as a firm believer in that policy.
As Thune outlined his plans for the bill during a closed-door Senate GOP luncheon last week — which was widely understood to ultimately be subject to a 60-vote hurdle — Lee was largely silent, according to three people with knowledge of the meeting.
Leadership ambitions?
As the Senate considered the bill, Thune and Lee maintained close contact behind the scenes.
“I think the key is to keep people’s expectations realistic and not make too many promises. And that’s what I’m trying to do,” Thune said in an interview about how he felt Lee was handling the debate. He declined to comment on whether Lee was doing so.
While Lee has repeatedly said this week that he and his allies are winning, he also acknowledged that it “wouldn’t be good for the movement” if they started “planning for failure now.”
“If we do our job, and … Republican senators do their job, we will win,” he said.
Some of those Republican senators have spent time recently wondering about Lee’s motivations.
Four GOP senators said they believed Lee’s ambitions were high. He once tried to run for the leadership, something colleagues believe he still aspires to, while others have pointed to a possible cabinet spot as his ultimate goal. Some of Lee’s most ardent online supporters have run for Senate majority leader, with one recently raising the Supreme Court as a landing spot during an online meeting.
“I think he’s obviously very disappointed that he’s not higher than he is, he feels like he’s passed over,” the first GOP senator said. Another said, “I think he looks in the mirror and thinks he’s leading.”
While Lee has Retweeted negative comments about Thune To other users on social media, he also encouraged his online followers to believe that Thune is well-intentioned and told them that Thune is “handling it very well right now.”
Bovard was among many Republicans who rejected the idea that Lee was using the election fight as a political springboard.
Bovard said, “It’s kind of funny, because the Senate is so dead … and it’s so broken that if a senator leans toward something and really cares about something, the assumption is (it’s) because they’re running for another office.”
Three Republicans said the issue is controversial. Given the way he has operated inside the GOP convention, he predicted, Lee may not win the leadership race. But during an X-stream shortly after midnight Friday, supporters told Lee that majority leader was exactly the job they wanted.
“Look,” he said, “let’s get the bill passed.”
