Only one Republican senator voted against the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Posted by Deadline: White House, Checked
- Sources
- 3 contradict2 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 75%
Deadline: White HouseOct 28, 2026
The claim that only one Republican senator voted against the 1965 Voting Rights Act is contradicted by the Senate tally: Republicans voted 30-2 on final passage (77-19 overall), so two Republicans opposed it. The claim matches the passage's wording, and the speaker's own 'only one' figure is the claim being checked, not evidence for it.
A detail. The sources confirm the gist; the verdict faults a detail such as a date, number or wording.
A guest makes this claim. Listeners heard it, so it counts against the post, and on the guest's own record.
What was said
… And if I could walk out for just a minute, I want to remind people that that that when the Voting Rights Act, when the Voting Rights Act was originally passed in 1965, it passed the United States Senate, the final bill, on a vote of 79 to 18, and only one Republican senator voted against it. Only one. The Republicans in the United States Senate voted 30 to one in favor of the Voting Rights Act. The one no vote was Strom Thurmond, who had switched from the Democrats. …
Deadline: White House · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Contradicts. The Senate passed the Voting Rights Act 77-19, with Republicans voting 30 to 2 in favor, meaning two Republican senators voted against it.[2][3]
Contradicts. PolitiFact's breakdown of the Senate vote gives 94 percent of Republicans supporting the bill, which is consistent with 30 of 32 Republicans voting yes and two voting no.[1]
Context. A 2018 NAACP LDF piece says only one Senate Republican opposed the 1965 conference report, a different vote from the final passage tally and not a source for the 'only one' count on the bill's passage.[4]
Context. A Reddit thread debates the Republican Southern votes and includes a roughly 30-to-one framing, but it is unrated and does not provide an authoritative count.[5]
Sources
5 sources: 1 fact-checker, 1 primary, 3 not rated
- 1Steele says GOP fought hard for civil rights bills in 1960s - PolitiFactpolitifact.com · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts
- 2Voting in America: A National Percongress.gov · primary source · cited for: contradicts
- 3Voting Rights Act of 1965 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org · not rated · cited for: contradicts
- 4Shelby First Anniversary Countdown: Day 16 - Legal Defense Fundnaacpldf.org · not rated · cited for: context
- 5US Senate vote on 1965 Voting Rights Actreddit.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- Strom Thurmond voted against the Voting Rights Act of 1965 after switching from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.True
- The Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed the United States Senate with a vote of 79 to 18.True
- There are no Republicans in Congress participating in the Senate task force on election integrity.True
- Every single Democrat in the United States Senate voted against a bill requiring voters to show an ID.True