Durbin ‘worried’ same-sex marriage bill won’t pass if GOP controls Senate

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Sunday expressed worry that a bill codifying same-sex marriage protections would not pass if the GOP flips the Senate in November.

“I am worried about that,” Durbin told moderator Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked about the bill’s prognosis under Republican control.

The House in July passed a bill that would require states to recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other states. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and other Democrats have since attempted to find 10 Republican votes needed for the bill to overcome a legislative filibuster in the Senate.

Baldwin announced last week that negotiators would punt the bill until after the November midterms, when Republicans hope to break Democrats’s razor-thin majority and flip the chamber. The winners of those contests will take office in January.

“My North Star on this issue is Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin,” Durbin said on NBC. “She has led the bipartisan effort, and she believes this is the right way to deal with it. I defer to her.”

The bill so far has garnered support from a few Republican senators, like Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Rob Portman (Ohio).

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) had suggested the bill would be much more likely to receive greater Republican support if a vote is held after Election Day. Negotiators also worked to amend the bill to gain additional GOP support, including changes clarifying religious liberty protections.

Democrats have looked to pass the bill after the Supreme Court in June struck down Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion in the case urging the court to review decisions based on the concept of substantive due process, a legal framework based on the 14th Amendment that led to decisions like Obergefell v. Hodges, which protected same-sex marriages nationwide.

“This is a serious issue, just like the Dobbs decision,” Durbin told Todd. “Clarence Thomas made it clear that he’s going to move toward overthrow the Supreme Court case related to gay rights in this country. We better take him seriously.”