The reinforcements are on the way.
More than 100 state legislators from across the United States are expected to arrive in the nation’s capital Monday to back up their Texas Democratic colleagues in an effort to put pressure on the Senate and President Biden to enact voting reform legislation.
The lawmakers are coming from nearly two dozen states including Arizona, Georgia and Florida, where Republican-controlled legislatures have passed or are mulling voting restriction bills. The idea behind this new wave of legislative support is to help push the Senate to pass the For the People Act, or at least show progress on a federal voting law, before their summer recess. They are scheduled to rally outside the Capitol on Tuesday and press their case at other events and during private meetings with members of Congress.
The Washington Post wrote arriving lawmakers want to let senators know specifically how a federal voting law could protect the rights of voters:
Florida state Rep. Anna V. Eskamani (D) said she hopes to impress upon those senators the importance of counteracting measures such as the ones passed recently in her state, which she said affect voting by mail and voter registration.
I really want to make sure they understand what we’re going through in Florida. If we don’t get this Congress to act, and the Biden administration to put pressure on voting rights, then I’m very worried about the ability of everyday Floridians to have their voices heard in the election process,” Eskamani, whose district in based in the Orlando area, said in an interview. She said “a federal firewall from these state voter suppression activities” is needed.
The group of 50 Texas Democrats are happy to see fresh faces joining their fight. They have been in D.C. since July 12, when they left Austin to block Republicans from passing a bill many observers said put undue restrictions on people’s right to vote. By leaving Austin, the Democrats effectively shut down the legislature because Republicans didn’t have a quorum to hold a vote. Texas is one of a number of states looking to pass voter-suppression bills, seizing on former President Trump’s lies about the 2020 election to handicap voting rights.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 18 states have enacted laws so far in 2021 to make voting harder.
The For the People Act, which would lock in certain voting standards and overhaul campaign finance and ethics rules, remains stalled in the Senate because Democrats can’t garner the support of 60 senators, the number needed to pass the legislation. Thus far, Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have insisted they will not support eliminating the Senate filibuster rule to allow the bill to be passed by simple majority.
The gathering of the state legislators in Washington was organized by the Declaration for American Democracy, a coalition of activist groups supporting voting rights. Other groups are also taking action to get the White House and Congress to join the fight to protect voters’ rights. Fair Fight Action and CAP Action are flying in 40 voters to appeal to senators, and the Poor People’s Campaign, led by the Rev. William J. Barber II, scheduled a nonviolent demonstration in Washington on Monday.
