If you're at all like us, every time you see Senator John Thune you want to ask him why he hasn't gotten the SAVE Act passed yet. It's obviously popular with Americans, the president supports it, so what's the deal? The only people who hate it are the ones who don't want our elections secured because they like no Voter ID, they like ballot-harvesting, they like mail-in voting for everyone and their dog.
So what's the DEAL, John? How is this not done already?
DataRepublican has some great points and ideas, of course:
Excited to share what I'm working on as Visiting Fellow @OversightProject.
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) February 26, 2026
The question I'm solving: why do Republicans vote against their own party... and their own voters on issues such as mass migration and SAVE ACT?
Surprising early finding: FEC donations are only weakly… pic.twitter.com/SgFzDPemhA
Post continues:
... correlated with voting behavior. Institutional affiliations (where senators trained, what orgs they've moved through, where they have membership) predict it far better.
And almost nobody tracks that systematically. Building that infrastructure now.
Major stress test: why Senate Republicans are slow-walking the SAVE Act despite 80% public support. Stay tuned.
She continues:
On the SAVE Act specifically:
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) February 26, 2026
"The uncomfortable synthesis: these senators have more in common with their Democratic counterparts than with their own voters. Not because of a coordinated network... just because they've lived in the same city, breathed the same air, and attended…
Post continues:
... the same events for 30-40 years. The filibuster is the excuse. The real answer is they don't feel the urgency their base feels, because Washington DC doesn't feel that urgency."
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In other words, they have forgotten who their base really is.
There's more:
Further explanation which I think is insightful:
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) February 26, 2026
Washington DC is culturally liberal. The institutions that long-tenure senators interact with daily: the press corps, the think tanks both parties actually attend (Brookings, CFR, Aspen, Carnegie), the schools their kids go to,…
Post continues:
... the dinner parties are all left-of-center. That creates asymmetric social pressure:
A Republican who drifts left gets rewarded. The press calls them a "statesman," a "maverick," a "reasonable voice." They get invited to the bipartisan events. Their kids don't get weird looks at Sidwell Friends. McCain got this. Collins gets this. Murkowski gets this. There's a whole media infrastructure that celebrates the "heroic moderate Republican."A Democrat who drifts right gets... nothing. There's no equivalent conservative institutional establishment in DC that would celebrate them. No black-tie dinner full of journalists who would applaud them for being "courageous" by moving right. Their base would primary them. The press wouldn't reward them. So they don't.
The incentive structure is one-directional. DC's Overton window is set by the press corps and the permanent institutions, and it pulls left. Republicans face constant pressure to accept that frame as the price of being taken seriously. Democrats are already inside the frame.
As infuriating as this all is ... she's right.
But you knew that.
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