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Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday cited Texas Republicans’ push for sweeping new voting restrictions as key evidence of the need to restore federal oversight of elections.
While meeting at the White House with a group of Democratic members of the Texas legislature, Harris recalled the 2013 US Supreme Court decision to overturn the pivot of the landmark Voting Rights Act that kept states like Texas under “prior approval” of their voting laws protecting the rights of voters of color. — a measure Democrats hope to restore with new federal legislation.
“We saw exactly what we feared when this case fell in 2013. Because this case was like opening a door to allow states to do what we would have otherwise protected against, which is states making laws that are being made in many cases that are completely intentional,” Harris said. To make it difficult for people to vote.” “And that’s what we’ve seen over and over again, and what is happening now in Texas is, of course, a very clear and recent example of that.”
Harris made the remarks at the start of a meeting with 16 Democratic members of the Texas legislature. The vice president, who leads the Biden administration’s voting rights efforts, called lawmakers to the White House after state representatives in May staged an 11-hour strike from the Capitol to break a quorum and prevent a final vote on what is seen as one of the party’s most restrictive voting bills backed Republican after the 2020 election, on Wednesday, Harris called Democrats “brave leaders” and “American patriots.”
The bill that Democrats defeated, Senate Bill 7, would have brought sweeping changes to the Texas elections by restricting voting hours, narrowing local officials’ control over elections, further tightening voting rules by mail and enhancing access to partisan poll monitors, among several other provisions.
It’s just one of a series of Republican-backed bills being proposed in state legislatures across the country in the wake of the 2020 election in which former President Donald Trump pushed through false and baseless allegations of voter fraud. In Texas, Republicans defended SB 7 as an “election integrity” measure intended to combat vote fraud, although there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
In a series of meetings with US senators and congressional leaders, Democrats have used the trip — and the national attention their quorum reaped — to push for a pair of federal bills that could preempt portions of Texas legislation they temporarily blocked from becoming law and restore blanket voter protections. Brown-skinned. With Republicans in complete control of the legislature, Governor Greg Abbott vowed to re-invite lawmakers this summer for a special legislative session to pass the bill into law.
The far-reaching federal “For the People” law would overhaul elections, requiring states like Texas to submit voter registration automatically and on the same day. By law, Texas would also have to drop strict eligibility requirements for mail-in voting, among several other changes to state law. The narrowly designed John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act could put Texas back under federal oversight so that its electoral laws do not go into effect before the federal government ensures it does not undermine the voting rights of people of color.
Under prior authorization, various sets of political maps and voting restrictions have been suspended with federal courts that have repeatedly found Texas lawmakers to knowingly discriminate against voters of color in their drawing.
“Many Democratic lawmakers here today in Washington, D.C. are the latest in a long line of Texans who have come to our nation’s capital to fight for access to elections and equality and to demand federal oversight to protect the right to vote,” said Representative Sinfonia Thompson, Democrat of Houston, In a statement after the meeting. Two weeks ago, in our state Capitol, House and Senate Democrats stood united to prevent a harmful measure of voter suppression from becoming law. We have done our part. Now, we need Congress to do their job.”
While several Texas Democrats this week hoped their trip to Washington would have pushed the ball forward in passing the legislation, it remains to be seen whether their efforts will do anything to break the stranglehold Republicans have on moving the Democratic agenda.
While the “Act for the People” has passed in the House of Representatives, the Democratic vote is short in the US Senate. Both legislation also faces a procedural hurdle in the Senate known as stalling, which sets a 60-vote threshold for bringing the legislation to a vote. Democrats haven’t been able to beat that demand, and two Democratic senators — US Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kirsten Sinema of Arizona — are still refusing to eliminate the disruption.
“We know we have a huge challenge ahead, and therefore we have a fight, which is the fight for the right of every American,” Harris said Wednesday, along with Thompson and Representative Gina Hinojosa of Austin at Roosevelt Hall.
Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz oppose the legislation, criticizing the Democratic push behind them as an attempt to curtail state control of elections.
The White House discussion between Harris and state lawmakers was led by Representative Jessica Gonzalez, the Dallas Democrat who serves as the deputy chair of the House Elections Committee, and focused on building the coalition behind their efforts to demolish SB 7 as well. Like the role Texas Democrats can play in shaping a path forward for federal legislation.
“The theme that came out of it was that we need to continue to build a broad-based coalition and allow Americans of all stripes to understand the precarious nature of our democracy and the importance of our right to vote,” Representative Rafael said. Anchia, de Dallas, who chairs the Mexican American legislature.
Abby Livingston contributed to this report.
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