Kamala Harris announces DNC investing additional $25 million in voting rights initiative
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Thursday that the Democratic National Committee is investing an additional $25 million in its voting rights initiative, underscoring the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to a cause that has become a rallying cry for the party.
“This campaign is grounded in the firm belief that everyone’s vote matters — that your vote matters,” Harris said, flanked by two American flags.
Harris made the announcement and call to action to get out the vote at her alma mater, Howard Unversity, an HBCU, kicking off remarks by saying it’s “so good to be home.” The location was also significant in that Democrats have argued that Republican voting bills popping up in legislatures across the country are threatening to suppress historically disenfranchised communities, including Black voters.
“I want to make clear that this is about all voters, it’s about all voters. This is not about Democrats or Republicans — it’s about Americans, let’s be clear about that,” Harris said. “We want to help to make sure your vote is counted, and that is because our democracy is strongest when everyone participates and … our democracy as a nation is weaker, when people are left out.”
Back in June, President Joe Biden announced he tapped Harris to lead the administration’s efforts to protect voting rights, but efforts for sweeping legislation at the federal level have stalled in Congress.
“Folks, it is never too early to defend your rights,” Harris said Thursday. “With these new laws that have been passed, or they’re trying to, we have to start now to finish strong.”
DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison previously announced a $20 million initial commitment to the initiative, called “I Will Vote.” Priorities USA, one of the largest Democratic super PACs that litigated over 15 voting-centric cases, has also committed $20 million to fighting efforts to curtail access to the ballot box.
Biden and Harris are also meeting with civil rights leaders at the White House at 3:30 p.m. Thursday and will discuss voting rights and the effort to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Representatives from the NAACP, National Urban League and National Action Network, among others, will attend.
The $25 million will be used to fund voter education and protection efforts, targeted voter registration and technology to increase voting accessibility and combat “Republicans’ unprecedented voter suppression efforts,” according to the DNC.
“Republicans know that their policies are unpopular — and that the only way for them to hold on to power is to attack the constitutional right to vote, held by the people they swore to serve. That’s why the Republican Party has made unprecedented efforts to keep people from voting,” Harrison said in a statement. “I’ve said time and again that the ‘D’ in Democrat stands for deliver, and today we are delivering innovative and historic resources to protect this fundamental part of our democracy.”
The investment comes amid a nationwide Republican effort to pass what the GOP lawmakers call “election integrity” laws that often tighten voting restrictions and limit access to the ballot box. Republicans endorsing these bills often point to the diminished trust among voters in U.S. elections but fail to address former President Donald Trump’s repeated attempts to undermine the 2020 election by falsely claiming there was mass voter fraud and that he actually won in November.
In the 2021 legislative sessions alone, state lawmakers across the country introduced nearly 400 bills that include restrictive voting provisions, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice’s analysis. At least 17, mostly GOP-led states, have enacted 28 new laws this year that at least in part restrict voter access.
On the federal level, Democrats’ attempts to fight back against these newly enacted laws have stalled. In June, Senate Republicans were united in blocking Democrats’ “For The People Act,” which would enact uniform voting and election standards for the nation. That outcome was expected, but it served as a reminder that garnering 60 votes to pass legislation Democrats consider critical to protecting Americans’ constitutional right to vote may prove to be impossible despite Biden’s pledge that “this fight is far from over.”
Litigation is proving to be one of the only ways Democrats can challenge states’ new election laws. Days after the “For The People Act” failed in the Senate, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state of Georgia for its new voting rights law, passed in late March. There are seven other federal lawsuits targeting that bill, which Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has defended as making it “easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
The Republican National Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee intervened in the Justice Department’s case, saying it was “confident” the courts would reject the DOJ’s arguments, referencing the Supreme Court’s ruling last week in a major voting rights case upholding two restrictive laws out of Arizona, DNC v. Brnovich.
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