The state lawmakers intend to keep the pressure on the president and U.S. Senate to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Act.
By Raga Justin and Emily Caldwell
WASHINGTON — As the Texas House Democrats who bolted from Austin prepare for their last week in Washington before Gov. Greg Abbott’s current special session ends, their push for voting rights protection is getting a boost from activists and other state legislators nationwide.
Over 100 state lawmakers from more than 20 states will join the Texas Democrats in Washington this week, many of them coming from Republican-led legislatures that have either threatened or already passed legislation similar to the GOP-backed voting bills the Texas members are blocking in the Legislature.
The legislators have planned a rally outside the Capitol on Tuesday, and said Monday they will continue to push for the federal bills at public events and private meetings throughout the week — even as the Texas lawmakers’ return to Austin remains shrouded in uncertainty.
“We’re literally fighting the same fight,” said Daniel Hernández, an Arizona state representative who is flying in Tuesday morning to join the rally. He said the Arizona delegation is attempting to set up meetings with Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly. “So whether you’re in Texas or Arizona, there are a lot of similarities. When we’re looking at the next election, the voting restrictions don’t just impact Democratic voters, or voters of color. They impact all Texans, and all Arizonans, and all Americans.”
The group will echo the Texas delegation’s call for the Senate to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act — or at least make progress — before the chamber’s August recess.
Both bills, which Democratic lawmakers say are the only way to override Republican efforts at the state level to limit access to the ballot box, have stalled in the Senate without the 60 votes needed to pass.
Gov. Greg Abbott has signaled his intent to continue calling session after session in an attempt to force the Democrats’ hand. Democrats stress that they are taking a stand until Abbott’s agenda lines up with theirs — including conversations on issues like the power grid and the pandemic. So there’s no end in sight yet to the stalemate in Austin.
“We need to hear from the governor and the speaker of the House that the priority in our session is that — we see more people are dying, we’re recognizing that we failed in ensuring the people are safe from the pandemic,” said Texas state Rep. Ana Maria Ramos, of Richardson. “But you won’t hear that from them, because they don’t care. [Texas Democrats] have to continue in the right direction, which is what we’re doing now.”
The discussion on voting rights has pivoted to include calls to eliminate the filibuster. At least 60 of the 100 members of the Senate must vote to end a filibuster, which Republicans have used to successfully stall federal voting rights legislation.
“The filibuster is sin,” civil rights activist Rev. William J. Barber II of the Poor People’s Campaign said at a Push Democracy Forward rally in Washington Monday. “A nonconstitutional filibuster — are you on that side, or are you on the side of fulfilling your constitutional duty to establish justice and promote the general welfare?”
Many see eliminating the filibuster as the best, and perhaps only, way to push comprehensive voting reform through Congress. Barber joined other activists and organizers, including Beto O’Rourke and Willie Nelson, Saturday at a separate voting rights rally at the Texas Capitol.
Luci Baines Johnson, whose father, former President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act into law, was present at both rallies. On Monday, her sister, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, accompanied her.
“Today, we are in crisis,” Luci Johnson said at the Monday rally. “The For the People Act and the John Lewis Act protect the right to vote for every American. It is time to ensure that they become the law of the land.”
