In Georgia, Republicans passed a new congressional map on Monday giving their party 64 percent of US House seats in a state Joe Biden won with 49.5 percent of the vote. In Ohio, Republicans passed a new congressional map on November 18 giving their party at least 80 percent of seats in a state Donald […]
Author: Ari Berman
This Texas County Shows Exactly How Republicans Are Rolling Back the Clock on Voting Rights
It was a scene that brought to mind the disenfranchisement of Black voters in the Jim Crow South. For 22 years, Stephen Holmes has been the lone Black and minority county commissioner in Galveston County, Texas, a coastal area south of Houston. But under new redistricting maps adopted by the GOP-controlled commission on November 12, […]
Republicans Are Erasing Decades of Voting Rights Gains Before Our Eyes
On Wednesday, Republicans blocked a vote on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Supreme Court’s gutting of the landmark voting rights law in 2013—and the lack of congressional action to fix it—means that the current redistricting cycle is the first in more than 50 years […]
Republicans Once Supported the Voting Rights Act. Today, They Voted Against Its Restoration.
On Wednesday afternoon, GOP senators blocked Democrats from advancing a key voting rights bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, marking the second time in two weeks and the fourth time this year that Republicans have filibustered voting rights legislation that would combat GOP voter suppression efforts. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called […]
Republicans Are Planning to Hijack the Next Election. Dems Are Squandering Their Chance to Stop Them.
In March 2021, before the Senate held its first hearing on the For the People Act, the Democrats’ sweeping democracy reform bill, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told me that her party had a “once-in-a-century moment to protect people’s right to vote.” But that historic opportunity to pass voting rights legislation is rapidly disappearing. And many […]
Republicans Are Passing Rigged Maps and Democrats Are Running Out of Time to Stop It
It took Texas Republicans less than 30 days to pass redistricting maps for Congress and the state legislature that will help them retake the US House in 2022 and entrench control of state politics for the next decade. Meanwhile, it’s been 230 days since the House of Representatives passed federal legislation—the For the People Act—that […]
Texas Republicans Are Pulling Out All the Stops to Dilute the Voting Power of People of Color
In 2020, Democrat Candace Valenzuela, who was running to become the first Black Latina member of Congress, lost the closest congressional race in Texas to Republican Beth Van Duyne. She was considering running again in 2022 for Texas’ 24th congressional district, once a stronghold of suburban Republicanism between Dallas and Fort Worth, but when she saw […]
Tens of Thousands Rally Across America for Abortion Rights
Tens of thousands of pro-choice Americans marched at 650 events throughout the country on Saturday in support of abortion rights. They came out specifically to denounce a draconian six-week abortion ban passed in Texas, which the Supreme Court refused to block on September 1—a possible prelude to the Court formally overturning Roe v. Wade. Today, […]
Trump’s Candidate for Arizona Governor Says She Would Not Have Certified Biden’s Victory
On November 30, 2020, Arizona’s Republican governor, attorney general, and chief justice of the state Supreme Court certified the state’s electoral votes for President Joe Biden. If Donald Trump has his way, that will not happen again for the Democratic candidate in 2024. Kari Lake, a former news anchor who is now the Trump-endorsed candidate for […]
Sinema Leaves DC for High-End Corporate Fundraiser as She Blocks Biden Spending Bill
As Congressional Democrats frantically tried to reach agreement on passing President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and $3.5 trillion social spending bill, Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz), one of the key moderates blocking the Build Back Better Act, abruptly left Washington DC for Arizona on Friday. Her spokesman said she had a medical appointment for a […]