GOPers Fear Proof of Citizenship Laws May Hurt Their Own Voters

The Republican-backed proof of citizenship bill that passed the House remains stuck in the Senate. And now Texas — often a testing ground for right-wing legislation — is the latest to reject a state-level version of the bill. 

One apparent reason why GOP legislators are getting cold feet about proof of citizenship laws for voter registration: They’re worried about disenfranchising their own voters, advocates say.

Texas legislators ended the 2025 session this week without passing a proof of citizenship bill, to the astonishment of voting advocates who are all too accustomed to seeing the state’s far-right leadership sign harmful restrictions into law.

“I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t pass at all,” Texas Rep. John Bucy (D), the ranking member on the House elections committee, told Democracy Docket. 

Across the country, Republicans made the noncitizen voter myth their leading conspiracy theory of the 2024 election cycle, which has led to more than 60 related bills filed in 28 states this year, according to Voting Rights Lab.  

Arizona Republicans passed a proof of citizenship bill – only for it to be vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) – as did lawmakers in Indiana and Wyoming. But in many states, even those controlled by Republicans, the measure has been met with hesitation. Texas is just one state that has rejected it, along with Florida, Utah and Missouri. Ohio lawmakers filed legislation, but Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has signaled he’s not interested in signing it.

“The governor’s been around for a long time and he knows that Ohio has very secure, trustworthy elections,” Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, told Democracy Docket.

Republican lawmakers might also be reluctant to impose a proof of citizenship requirement because it would make it more difficult for their own voters to cast a ballot.

“Rural Ohioans are twice as likely to not have their citizenship documentation,” Miller said. “Groups that would be disproportionately impacted are rural Ohioans, senior citizens, people with disabilities and married women.” 

A similar dynamic may have played out in Texas.

While making office visits to Republican lawmakers, Common Cause Texas Policy Director Emily Eby French heard from several staffers who said they were getting concerned phone calls from women they knew personally who wanted to know if their birth certificates would count as proof of citizenship if they had changed their last names when they married.

“A lot of them were saying, ‘Am I going to have to get a passport?’ to their friends who work in the Texas legislature. I wonder if that level of personal concern from their own communities impacted any of these lawmakers who ended up not getting that bill across the finish line,” French said.

In Texas, 45% of the citizen population doesn’t have a passport, according to the Center for American Progress. That figure is likely disproportionately higher for rural voters who tend to vote Republican, French said. 

“I think that a lot of those rural Texans who live paycheck to paycheck, who don’t travel, who vote Republican would have found themselves out in the cold,” French said. “And at some level, that messaging sunk through to Republican lawmakers.”

At the beginning of the year, though, a proof of citizenship bill seemed sure to pass in Texas. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) listed it as one of his top 40 priority bills. More than 50 Republicans signed on to co-sponsor the bill in the House, signaling that it likely had enough support to make it to the governor’s desk. But Bucy said it gradually became clear it wasn’t a big hit with Republicans when the author of the bill never even called him to discuss it.

“We talk a lot about legislation, whether we’re on the same side of it or fighting. And he never did,” Bucy said.

During a hearing on the bill, Republicans realized it would be more burdensome to voters than they’d thought, Bucy said.

Under the Texas legislation, residents would be required to go to a registrar’s office to show proof of citizenship before their voter registration could be approved. The only permissible forms of ID for U.S.-born citizens were a passport, passport card or birth certificate. 

“I think people, as they started to really hear about this legislation, realized how poorly crafted it was and that it would be a mistake,” Bucy said.

French agreed that the House Republican introducing the bill had a hard time defending it, even though it allegedly was a high priority.   

“She insisted that it was easy to get a drivers license with your new name on it,” French said, “even though a drivers license was not one of the available IDs under her bill.”

Much of her argument depended on inflated numbers of noncitizens removed from Texas voter rolls that were already debunked last year in an investigation from Votebeat, ProPublica and the Texas Tribune.

Still, the bill’s demise came as a shock.

“Pointing out how expensive and impractical a voter suppression tactic is rarely stops voter suppression tactics from getting through the Texas legislature,” French said. “I was really happy and surprised to see that it worked this time.”