Senator Raphael Warnock Unloads On GOP Over Vote Suppression

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At an event this week to promote the voting rights legislation known as the For the People Act, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) outlined some of the serious dangers of the current push by Republicans to enact suppressive new election restrictions around the country. Warnock also shared a vision for the future, insisting that those on the side of voting rights “will not allow” the GOP’s attempt to impose what he called “minority rule” to be successful. Republican leaders don’t represent the views of a documented majority of Americans, but instead of engaging in the political process like other interests, they’ve sought an authoritarian imposition of their plans.

Warnock pointedly commented as follows:

‘I’ve only been in the Senate a little while, and I’ve already been there long enough to realize that it’s easy for folks who become a part of this institution to become cynical, to say that we go and we debate various issues — and there is a practical side, we debate certain things, we win some, we lose some, we come back the next Congress — but let me be very clear. This is not just some ordinary moment. What they are trying to do in Georgia, and all across this country, is to squeeze the voices of the people out of their democracy such that they can have minority rule. And we will not allow that to happen.’

Check out Warnock’s comments below:

At present, the passage of the For the People Act in the Senate is in serious jeopardy. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), one of the most conservatively minded Democrats in the Senate, recently announced that he would vote against the measure, complaining that it’s supposedly not bipartisan enough, but the legislation was already on shaky ground. The Senate’s filibuster rules require the agreement of 60 Senators in the 100-member chamber before moving forward, including to a final vote, on most bills, and with the Senate’s current party breakdown, that would require at least 10 Republicans in support of the legislation. There’s been no sudden burst of Republican support on that level.

Another currently on deck proposal is the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would reinstate a requirement for federal review of certain proposed local changes to the administering of elections. The hope would be to stop potential suppressive new election restrictions before they’re actually put into place.