NO ID, NO DEAL: Susie Lee Votes Against Troop Raises to Fight Election Security

Democrat Rep. Susie Lee voted against the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, rejecting troop pay raises, military modernization, border-security support and improved National Guard readiness because Republicans attached voter-identification requirements.

The $1.15 trillion defense bill passed the House 216 to 212. Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei voted for the legislation, while Lee joined 205 House Democrats in opposing it.

Lee quickly explained her decision. She accused Republicans of politicizing national security by attaching the SAVE America Act, then called the voter-ID proposal “a trick to prevent millions of Americans from voting.”

In other words, Lee found voter ID so intolerable that she was willing to torpedo the entire defense package. Troop pay, military families, shipbuilding, border security and readiness all became acceptable collateral damage in her crusade against verifying who casts an American ballot.

The legislation authorizes pay raises ranging from 5 to 7 percent for servicemembers, depending on rank, while investing more than $2 billion in barracks, dormitories and military housing. It also provides more than $60 billion for shipbuilding, including submarines, support vessels and an additional Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.

The bill fully supports the military’s assistance to the Department of Homeland Security’s border-security operations and strengthens the active-duty and reserve force. It also expands military construction, weapons procurement, research and development, family housing and National Guard capabilities.

Lee did not claim those priorities were unimportant. She simply decided her opposition to voter ID mattered more.

That judgment is astonishing anywhere, but it borders on political derangement in Nevada. More than 1.03 million Nevadans voted for Question 7 in 2024, approving a state constitutional voter-identification requirement with 73.23 percent of the vote.

The proposal carried every Nevada county, including Clark County, where roughly 73 percent of voters supported it. Nevadans will vote on the amendment again in November because state law requires constitutional initiatives to win approval in two consecutive even-numbered elections.

Lee is not protecting Nevadans from some unpopular Republican obsession. She is fighting a landslide mandate delivered by the very people she was elected to represent.

National polling makes her position look even more bizarre. Gallup found that 84 percent of Americans support requiring photo identification to vote, while 83 percent support requiring proof of citizenship when first registering. Both policies command majority support among Democrats, Republicans and independents.

The SAVE America Act requires photo identification when casting a federal ballot and documentary proof of citizenship when registering. Lee calls that voter suppression, although Americans routinely present identification to board an airplane, enter secure buildings or complete countless everyday transactions.

Apparently, asking someone to prove an American citizen is casting an American ballot is an unforgivable outrage. Voting against a pay raise for the men and women defending that ballot, however, is Lee’s idea of principled leadership.

This was not an isolated lapse. In July 2025, the National Republican Congressional Committee attacked Lee accusing her of “putting partisan politics over national defense,” after she voted against the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which included a 3.8 percent troop pay raise, investments in advanced American aircraft and $1.15 billion to combat drug trafficking and foreign fentanyl networks.

The pattern is now impossible to miss. When national defense collides with the Democrat Party’s ideological demands, Lee treats servicemembers and military families like disposable bargaining chips.

Nevada’s political movement away from Washington Democrats was powered by precisely this kind of arrogance. President Donald Trump carried the Silver State in 2024, becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to win Nevada since 2004, while voter ID won an even more overwhelming statewide victory.

“Susie Lee is totally out of touch with Nevadans, who overwhelmingly support the men and women in uniform and support voter ID across party lines. Every day Lee proves she’s an unhinged radical who puts politics over people every time,” RNC Spokesman Nick Poche said.

Lee claims Republicans politicized the defense bill. Her own explanation reveals the truth: Republicans presented her with troop raises, stronger military readiness and election security, and she decided opposing voter ID was worth sacrificing everything else.

Susie Lee has now told Nevadans exactly where her priorities lie. When forced to choose between America’s troops and the Democrat Party’s war on voter ID, she saluted the party and stiffed the troops.

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