Stymied in Washington, Democrats work outside of Congress to expand voter access
Civil rights leaders are planning nationwide demonstrations. Deep-pocketed outside groups are spending millions of dollars on voter protections. And the White House is preparing its own massive campaign led by Vice President Kamala Harris.
As efforts to pass national election reform legislation stall, Democrats and civil rights groups are increasingly turning to alternative methods outside of Congress to combat Republican-led voting restrictions across the country that they view as disproportionately affecting the coalition that helped lift President Joe Biden to victory in 2020.
Leaders of these campaigns stress that while their efforts are not a replacement for federal legislation — which Biden is scheduled to again make the case for during a speech Tuesday in Philadelphia— they are a political necessity in the face of a new wave of voting laws in many key states and ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
“At this moment we don’t need capitulation and compromise, we need commitment to the fundamental principle of not denying or abridging the right to vote,” Poor People’s Campaign co-chair and North Carolina Rev. William Barber said in an interview.
“This is a most critical moment for the soul of this democracy that faces us,” Barber added. “And that’s why our efforts are going to be extraordinary.”
Democratic National Committee officials last week said they would spend $25 million to help voters navigate new restrictions and encourage them to register this election cycle. Reyna Walters-Morgan, DNC director of civic engagement and voter protection, said the committee may also invest more money aiding individual state parties.
“We just can’t talk about it,” said Walters-Morgan. “We are walking the walk and talking the talk with this investment.”
The DNC’s announcement came after two outside groups, the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA and the Biden-allied nonprofit Building Back Together, each announced their own initiatives, with Priorities slated to spend $20 million.
And civil rights leaders announced after meeting with Biden and Harris in the White House last week that they were beginning their own “summer of activism” to engage voters and put pressure on members of Congress.
“This will be a summer of activism, a summer of getting back in the streets, a summer of saying to the Senate and the Congress, ‘You may be going home, but it’s going to be warmer politically than you think,’” Rev. Al Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, said after the meeting.
The on-the-ground push comes after Republican-controlled legislatures led efforts in some states this year to restrict ballot access and limit voting methods implemented during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Republicans have said the restrictions are necessary for ballot security, while Democrats argue many of new rules would have an outsized impact on left-leaning constituencies, including minority voters.
Democrats have tried to combat those efforts in Congress, but their voting rights bill — in the face of united GOP opposition and division over potential changes to the filibuster — failed to clear a Senate procedural hurdle last month that left its future unclear.
Biden will renew his case for federal legislation during his speech in Philadelphia, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday, but emphasized that he would also tout the importance of advocacy efforts to educate voters.
“But the last piece is he will talk about, also, the importance of empowering, engaging, and supporting efforts around the country to make sure people know their rights and understand how to participate in the process,” Psaki said.
WHITE HOUSE PUSH
Biden and Harris are becoming more vocal on the issue. In announcing the DNC investment, Harris said it would allow Democrats to register, educate, turn out and protect voters in future elections.
“We have to start now to finish strong. And remember this is not only about a national election. This is also about state and local elections,” Harris said during a speech last week at Howard University, the historically Black college where she received her undergraduate degree.
“This is the fight of our lifetime,” Harris added. “We all stand on the shoulders of giants.”
Civil rights leaders are putting public and private pressure on Biden and Harris to make maximum use of the bully pulpit.
Barber, whose group has been protesting on Capitol Hill, said Monday that Biden should deliver a major speech in Texas, where the legislature is considering changes to the state’s voting laws, and request to make an address to Congress before the anniversary of the signing of the original Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6, 1965.
The money the DNC is spending is a start, Barber said. “But we cannot win this state by state.”
“We also have to realize we’re talking about an electoral season now where upwards of a billion dollars or more are spent every year, anybody,” he added. “It’s not one silver bullet. It’s not one thing that must be done. This must be comprehensive.”
Biden signed an executive order in March aimed at improving and expanding voting access. He also appointed a pair of civil rights leaders, Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke, to positions in the Department of Justice that gives them a powerful platform and government resources to fight legal challenges to voting rights, a move hailed by civil rights groups.
During a meeting last week with a group of civil rights leaders, Biden said that he would do everything he could on voting rights, according to Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of The National Coalition of Black Civic Participation. Campbell said they discussed actions the executive branch is taking and the sway that Biden has as party leader and president.
But civil rights leaders also delivered a message to the president. “We can’t wait on elected officials,” Campbell said. “History has showed us, you have to use all means to move public policy.”
Campbell’s group is organizing a demonstration on Thursday on Capitol Hill that she said was designed to promote Black women’s voices on voting rights and push the Senate to pass legislation on the matter.
Trey Baker, senior advisor for public engagement at the White House, said voting rights is “personal” to Biden, framing the issue as intrinsic to the president’s agenda.
“None of that is possible without the underlying issue of voting being taken care of, without people being able to make the decision to have put him here in the first place, so he sees it as a top priority,” Baker said.
The Republican National Committee said that Democrats are pouring money into the DNC program because they are running out of options after suffering judicial and legislative setbacks.
RNC communications director Danielle Alvarez noted in a statement that Democrats lost a challenge to Arizona voting laws in the Supreme Court earlier this month.
“Americans support transparency and common-sense election integrity reforms, not Democrat efforts to undermine election integrity which will meet the same fate as their attempted federal takeover of elections,” Alvarez said.
This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Stymied in Washington, Democrats work outside of Congress to expand voter access."
