Which Republican senators voted for the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act?

1. What the roll-call record shows: no Republican “yes” votes recorded in the Senate fight

When Senate Democrats tried to advance the Freedom to Vote Act (and the combined Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act) in October 2021, the cloture/procedural vote to begin debate failed 51–49 (short of the 60 needed), and reporting from CBS News and NPR documents that Republicans opposed and blocked the measure — CBS said Republicans were “unanimous” in opposing advancing the bill and NPR quoted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell saying he hoped no Republican would vote for it ^{[1] [2]}. Rock the Vote similarly summarizes that the joint bill “was never brought to a simple majority vote in the Senate” because the filibuster remained intact ^[3].

2. House passage but Senate obstruction: the legislative arc matters

Advocates and legal analyses make a clear distinction: the House did pass the package (House vote totals are cited in advocacy summaries), but Senate procedures prevented a final up-or-down vote after Democrats failed to secure the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster threat ^{[4] [1]}. Democracy Docket and advocacy groups note reintroductions and continuing efforts, but contemporaneous coverage of the 2021 cloture vote documents the immediate outcome — Republicans in the Senate blocked debate ^{[5] [1]}.

3. Republican messaging and strategy: federal overreach framing

NPR and CBS report that leading Senate Republicans framed the bill as federal overreach and an attempted “election takeover,” with Mitch McConnell publicly urging Republican opposition and urging that no GOP senators support it ^{[2] [1]}. Advocacy organizations and civil-rights groups, by contrast, described the legislation as a pro-voter, anti-gerrymandering and anti-dark-money package and documented public polling that showed support across partisan lines in some surveys ^{[6] [7]}.

4. Where sources agree and where they diverge

All the provided news accounts and explanatory sources agree the bill stalled in the Senate because Senate Republicans blocked debate and the filibuster prevented a majority vote ^{[1] [3] [2]}. Advocacy groups (Brennan Center, Civil Rights organizations, Common Cause) present the bill as broadly popular and necessary to protect voting rights, while news outlets emphasize the partisan impasse and Republican objections ^{[7] [8] [9] [1]}.

5. What the sources do not show — limits of the record provided

The supplied material does not include a granular roll-call list showing a named Republican senator who voted “yes” for final passage in the Senate — because the measure never reached a final majority vote in the Senate ^{[3] [1]}. Available sources do not mention any Republican senators who explicitly crossed party lines to cast a decisive “yea” on final passage of the combined Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act (not found in current reporting).

6. Context and implications: filibuster, legislative strategy, and subsequent reintroductions

Multiple advocacy analyses note that failing to change or circumvent the filibuster was a key reason the bill stalled and that supporters pushed procedural changes or other strategies to get voting-rights measures to a vote ^{[10] [3]}. Democrats reintroduced related measures in later Congresses, and advocacy groups continued pressing for passage; reporting and organizational pages document reintroductions and ongoing campaigns to shift public opinion or Senate rules ^{[5] [9]}.

If you want, I can compile the specific Senate procedural vote tallies and public statements from the 2021 cloture vote (including which senators voted yea/nay on cloture) from the congressional roll call referenced in the news reports and produce a named list showing that no Republican voted to advance the bill, using the primary Senate roll-call record.