The Movement: Why the Club for Growth is eyeing weeks of debate on the SAVE America Act

Outside conservative groupsare putting pressure on Senate Republicans to make their floor debate exercise over the SAVE America Act last as long as possible — including the highly influential Club for Growth, which typically focuses on free enterprise and economic growth.

As the Senate this week kicks off a floor process for the voting legislation pushed by President Trump and conservative activists, the major question is how long Republicans will keep up debate, given the expectation is that they won’t be able to actually pass the bill.

Club for Growth President David McIntosh told me Monday that he’d like to see the Senate pushing the bill for a month or more — saying that he hopes Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) doesn’t let up any time soon.

“If Thune gives up in the next week, next couple of weeks, and doesn’t at least go four or five or six weeks to be able to really force a robust debate, and to the point where it’s just clear the Democrats are being obstructionists … If he has the courage to do that, then I think he will walk away a winner,” McIntosh told me in a phone interview Monday.

The Club for Growth on Monday launched a website, PassSaveAmericaAct.com, to highlight senators’ positions on the legislation and on trying to force a “talking filibuster” to pass the bill, in conjunction with issuing a key vote alert for its lawmaker scorecard.

The group argues the SAVE America Act, which would require voter ID when casting a ballot and proof of citizenship when registering to vote, is “common-sense” and popular. A February Harvard/Harris poll found 71 percent support for the SAVE Act among all voters, with 54 percent prioritizing “stopping voter fraud over access concerns for eligible citizens.”

McIntosh and others working for Republican victories in the upcoming elections look at those kinds of numbers and see a major midterm argument. It would be a boon to Republicans in November to make Democrats argue against popular positions like requiring voter ID.

“If they are forced to defend that very unpopular position, then I think it actually helps Republicans going into the general election,” McIntosh said.

But the success of that campaign strategy depends on what happens in the Senate debate.

“If Republicans are seen as cutting off debate because they don’t want to spend the time on it, and not forcing the Democrats to actually engage in the filibuster, then I think it hurts Republicans,” McIntosh said.

The Club isn’t alone in mounting a major push for the bill.

“Once the debate begins, we want to keep the debate going as long as possible. We don’t want Thune to come in and close the debate too early,” Jenny Beth Martin, president of the Tea Party Patriots group that has long been aggressively pushing the SAVE Act, said on Bannon’s WarRoom show on Monday.

As Trump pledges to not sign any bills until the SAVE America Act passes, the issue is set to become a bigger issue in GOP primaries — particularly in the Texas GOP Senate runoff between Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“I think the issues have shifted from the immigration and border,” McIntosh said of GOP primaries. “Issues like the SAVE Act that probably weren’t that front center in the last wave of primaries will become front and center. You’re going to see the Republican primary voters want the Senate to stand up and fight for it.”

The Club famously clashed with Trump in previous years, such as in the 2022 Ohio Senate GOP primary, backing Josh Mandel rather than now-Vice President JD Vance, leading Trump to dub it the “Club for No Growth.”

That isn’t really happening this year, with McIntosh saying that the Club is coordinating with the White House political team. It’s waiting to see what Trump ends up doing before endorsing in the open Kentucky Senate primary between Rep. Andy Barr (who the group is opposing), businessman Nate Morris, and former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

The group did, however, endorse Rep. Mike Collins in the Georgia Senate GOP primary earlier this month despite Trump not yet weighing in.

GOP primary voters, McIntosh said, are going to the polls asking: “Are Republicans going to continue to fight for the agenda the president’s laid out there?”

Welcome to The Movement, a weekly newsletter looking at the influences and debates on the right in Washington. I’m Emily Brooks, House leadership reporter at The Hill.

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PUNDIT FEUDS ESPOSE TRUMP COALITION CRACKS

Nasty feuds among top conservative commentators, at times devolving into middle-school-style name-calling, are putting the fractures in President Trump’s coalition on display.

The latest flashpoint was Megyn Kelly, incensed at the months of criticism she’s gotten from her former Fox News colleague Mark Levin over her skepticism of foreign intervention, on Sunday dubbing Levin “micropenis Mark.”

Trump, without naming Kelly, posted in Levin’s defense that evening saying he’s “somewhat under siege” by people who “ARE NOT MAGA.” Levin later denied speaking to the president about releasing such a statement. Kelly defended her name-calling (while clarifying, “I thankfully have never had to look at it firsthand, but you can just tell.”). She noted Levin has called her names like “Grandma Groyper.”

“After 111 tweets, increasing the security profile on my own life, and attacking me in the most violent terms, I think anybody could see that I was entitled to one below the belt punch. Right? When they go low, we go micropenis,” Kelly said on her show Monday.

It’s the latest instance in months of wars between conservative influencers. On the one side are those supportive of Trump’s bombing campaign in Iran as the war enters its third week — such as Levin and Ben Shapiro. On the other are Kelly and Tucker Carlson —both of whom campaigned for Trump at his rallies in 2024, but are voicing skepticism about Trump’s actions in Iran and elsewhere around the world. And that’s before even getting into Candace Owens’ conspiracy theories about Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Do these feuds actually matter? Or can those who are going against Trump be dismissed?

Kelly said that Trump’s defense of Levin and making him a barometer of MAGA shows the president “does not have his finger on the pulse of where his party is right now, which is very unusual for Trump.”

“He is going to further destroy his own coalition if he continues with this,” she said.

Others argue that those going against Trump, like Carlson and Kelly, are simply losing relevance and will not be influential in the future of the Republican party, pointing to an NBC poll showing 90 percent of self-identified MAGA Republicans supporting Trump’s Iran strikes.

Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters for America, a left-leaning watchdog that monitors the right-wing media ecosystem closely, argued that the fissures aren’t just a sideshow.

“I do think we’re seeing something much more significant about the future of our politics and where our country is going in a lot of these fights sort of emerging, who has power, who’s able to build power, and what things are they choosing to organize this new power structures around,” Carusone said.

Carlson and Kelly, he said, are speaking to the same kind of independent audience as other podcasters and influencers who aren’t as explicitly political, but were key in driving the cultural “vibe” that benefited Trump in 2024, who are disillusioned with Trump. YouTuber Sneako, for instance, supported Trump in the last election but is now “completely apoplectic about this war.”

“They are telling a story about America and the current state of politics that any person looking toward the future is going to have to tap into if they want to build political power.”

The discontent from figures like Kelly and Carlson harms Trump and the GOP, Carusone said, because there will be fewer figures using their broadcasts to defend the president’s positions and actions.

“Do you think Carlson’s going to get out there tomorrow with a Trump story about the economy? Explain to people why they need to think about Trump and their economic interest?” Carusone said.

Further reading…. Matt Van Swol on X: “The Right Has A Podcast Problem. And It Might Cost Us An Election.”

Thursday, March 19: The Bull Moose Institute hosts an America First Antitrust Forum, featuring Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division Omeed Assafi, among others. Details here.

Thursday, March 19: The Heritage Foundation hosts a fireside chat with The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles. Details here.

Wednesday, March 25 – Saturday, March 28: CPAC hosts its annual gathering at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Dallas, Texas (not National Harbor)!

Palmer Luckey, founder of defense company Anduril Industries, said on the first episode of The Axios Show that the U.S. doesn’t have the “political will” to put boots on the ground in Iran. “Our adventures in the Middle East of the last couple decades have robbed America of its ability to sustain a boots-on-the-ground campaign,” he said.

The America First Policy Institute is expanding its office, buying the Colorado Building in Washington, D.C. for $20 million, Politico reported. “By strengthening our presence in Washington, we are better positioned to relentlessly advance President Trump’s proven policies and ensure these principles become a lasting, unbreakable legacy that shapes our nation for generations to come,” AFPI interim president Greg Sindelar said in a statement.

The MAHA PAC launched a $100 million fundraising campaign to boost Trump-endorsed “Make America Healthy Again” candidates in 2026, the Daily Signal reported.

ABC News’s Will Steakin: Some GOP donors plot shadow ‘draft Rubio’ 2028 effort as his star rises: Sources

The Dispatch’s Grayson Logue: The Brain Trust Fueling Vance and Rubio’s Vision for the GOP

Wall Street Journal’s Ken Thomas and Rachel Wolfe: The GOP Stronghold Where Anxiety Over the War Is Already on the Ballot

The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins: Sucker: My year as a degenerate gambler

The Hill’s Al Weaver: Mullin departure creates ‘House whisperer’ vacancy for Senate GOP

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