Defection at the Last Minute: Why Did Four Republican Senators Oppose the CLARITY Act?

Original | Odaily (@OdailyChina)

Author | SuDiXia@Odaily

In the early hours of September 16 Beijing time, the U.S. Senate initiated a procedural vote on the CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633). The result was 49 in favor and 50 against, falling short of the 60-vote threshold and failing to advance to debate. No Democrats supported it.

Unexpectedly, four Republican senators holding seats under Trump's influence voted against it: Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Jerry Moran of Kansas, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. All other Republican senators voted in favor.

An Odaily review found that these four senators' opposition was not entirely "anti-Trump"; it also reflected a combination of local interests and their respective political positioning. Hawley and Moran focused more on community banks and agricultural credit, while Collins is a long-standing moderate independent. Thom Tillis in particular voted against in order to preserve the procedural right to raise a motion for reconsideration later; if the text is revised or Democrats are brought on board in the future, the process would not have to start from scratch. Tillis later said this was not the end and that the White House had already done a great deal of work.

Susan Collins: The moderate who drew the line earliest

Susan Collins is a senior senator from Maine, long known for her image as an independent Republican, and has repeatedly broken with the mainstream of her party on key votes.

She is also the one among the four who has had the longest-running and earliest feud with Trump, having never voted for him in a presidential campaign. During the 2016 presidential election, Collins even wrote in The Washington Post that Trump "lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgment required to serve as president," and made clear she would not vote for him.

On January 6, 2021, she voted in the impeachment trial to find Trump guilty of inciting insurrection, on the grounds that Trump "created a dangerous situation," put personal interests above the country, and bore major responsibility for the storming of the Capitol. She was also one of seven Republican senators who voted guilty.

In the 2025 "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (OBBBA), she again voted against it due to cuts to Medicaid. Trump once mocked her on social media, saying, "When in doubt, vote the opposite of Susan Collins," and gave her the nickname "wacky Susan Collins."

However, Trump has been relatively restrained in going after her. After all, Maine is a state Trump lost, and replacing Susan Collins would almost amount to handing the seat to the Democrats. In her 2026 re-election race, Trump changed his tone, saying she was "not my best friend" and "sometimes votes against me," but is "sane and has never missed a vote in years," and he expressed support for her re-election. Their relationship remains one of mutual dislike, but the seat matters more than feelings.

Susan Collins deliberately avoids appearing alongside Trump and often protects herself in Congress by leveraging her role as Appropriations Committee chair and focusing on state issues, avoiding deep entanglement with Trump's MAGA forces. Her opposition to the CLARITY Act this time is consistent with her long-standing local-first and bipartisan posture.

Josh Hawley: Trump's political ally, a "working-class Republican"

Born in 1979, Josh Hawley has a background at Stanford and Yale Law School. He entered the Senate in 2018 and is known for Christian conservatism, anti-Big Tech views, and economic populism (criticizing Wall Street and elites).

Josh Hawley's relationship with the Trump family is very close.

After Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Trump's camp questioned the vote counts in several swing states. Most Republican senators initially held back, but Hawley was the first to announce an objection and demand re-certification of the votes. He also became the first Republican senator to publicly support Trump, with more lawmakers later following suit. Although this ultimately failed to help the Trump family overturn the outcome, the favor was remembered. The Trump family even invited Josh Hawley to dine at their Washington hotel. After that, he became deeply aligned with Trump's camp and formally endorsed Trump's 2024 campaign in 2023.

But during Trump's new term, the two sides still had some friction, and it directly touched the Trump family's wallet.

For example, Hawley pushed for a congressional stock trading ban and included the president and vice president within its scope. Trump lashed out on social media, calling him a second-rate senator and a pawn of the Democrats. "Real Republicans don't want to see a president with unprecedented achievements targeted by the whim of a second-rate senator named Josh Hawley." Other frictions included the Venezuela war powers resolution and the FDA retaining mifepristone, among others.

Overall, Hawley actually cooperates closely with Trump on many agenda items, but he singles out his state's interests. Bank protection is also a long-standing populist issue for him. His stated reason for opposing this bill was that stablecoin rewards could drain community bank deposits, hurting Missouri agricultural credit and small-town banks. He worried his office would be "flooded and blown up" by farmers, ranchers, and local bankers, which would not fit his long-standing "working-class Republican" persona.

Jerry Moran: The low-key, transparent lawmaker

Born in Kansas in 1954, Jerry Moran went from small-town bank clerk to state senator to U.S. representative, and entered the Senate in 2010. He has long focused on agriculture, veterans' affairs, and aerospace. His style is pragmatic and low-key, and he rarely makes headlines. In 2014, he served as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

In fact, Jerry Moran can also be considered part of the Trump camp, though the relationship is neither close nor distant. In the impeachment case over the Capitol attack, he voted to acquit Trump. When Jerry Moran faced a primary challenge during his 2022 Senate re-election, it was Trump who endorsed him and snuffed out the challenger's momentum.

He once told reporters that Trump's policies have support from many Kansans, but "the package that comes with it is hurtful" — he cannot stand Trump's attention-seeking and constant troublemaking. During the 2024 election, Jerry Moran neither publicly supported Trump nor switched to backing Harris, effectively staying neutral on his party's presidential nominee, which is rare for a Republican senator.

His reason for opposing CLARITY this time is consistent with his usual style: Kansas farms rely on community bank loans, and stablecoin rewards could cause deposit outflows — a typical "state interests first" vote.

Thom Tillis: Openly sparring with Trump

Thom Tillis is a two-term senator who rose from grassroots Republican organizing. He is more of an institutionalist and willing to negotiate compromises.

Regarding Trump's 2025 "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," he calculated that the Senate version's Medicaid adjustments could leave about 660,000 people in North Carolina facing loss of coverage, put pressure on rural hospitals, and cost the state tens of billions of dollars. He therefore publicly opposed it and came into direct conflict with Trump. Trump said he "only talks and complains, he's not a doer," and threatened to support a primary challenger; Tillis then announced he would not seek re-election in 2026, and Trump replied: "Good news!"

After that, he clearly became more unrestrained in his remaining term, more willing to criticize White House personnel and policy implementation, attacking White House aides (especially Stephen Miller) and criticizing the Greenland rhetoric. In September 2026, after Trump posted that "the AI apocalypse is a hoax," Tillis retorted to his face, "It's not a hoax."

His vote against CLARITY this time was mainly a procedural move (preserving the right to reconsider), and he stressed that there is still room for the bill to continue advancing. Under Senate rules, only senators on the majority side can move to reconsider. This move keeps the procedural right to relaunch the same motion in Republican hands, so that if the text is revised or Democrats are brought on board later, the process would not have to start from zero. Tillis later said this was not the end and that the White House had already done a great deal of work; Trump said, "I like Thom Tillis."