Democrats building war chest to fight restrictive GOP voting laws 

As Republicans continue to embrace The Big Lie —  perpetuated by former President Donald Trump that the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen from him — Republicans across the nation have passed, or are attempting to pass, ongoing legislation to restrict voting laws. 

According to Reuters, 27 states are considering more than 250 bills with restrictive voting provisions. That number is up from 75 bills the previous year. 

The measures are expected to have a disproportionate impact on minority voters who tend to be more likely to vote for Democrats. 

In response, Democrats are building a war chest to spend record sums on attorneys, advertising, and other efforts to help protect the vote before the 2022 midterm elections this fall. 

The report says that the Democratic National Committee raised more than $150 million last year, which was a record for a year when there is no presidential election. 

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will spend at least $10 million strictly on voting rights litigation. “This is an all-hands-on-deck effort to ensure that every ballot is counted,” said Representative Nikema Williams (D-GA). She is leading the DCCC effort to hold on to the majority in the House of Representatives.

Williams noted that the financial investment is necessary to combat a “decades-long crusade” by Republicans to “suppress the vote.” Republicans have hired lawyers in 17 target states and have engaged in more than 30 election-related lawsuits, according to Reuters.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle,” Aneesa McMillan, deputy executive director of Priorities USA, told Reuters. The progressive grassroots organization has budgeted at least $20 million for its voting rights efforts. “It’s a coordinated attack on marginalized communities.”

In an opinion piece last month, journalist Donna Brazile wrote that while the fight for voting rights may have failed in the Senate, efforts must continue.

Writing in theGrio, Brazile says: “National voting rights legislation is desperately needed to prevent Republicans from enacting modern-day versions of the racist Jim Crow laws that for so long excluded Black Americans from the ballot box, depriving us of equal treatment under the law and our fair share of political power.” 

In invoking the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Brazile says that we must continue his work and that of every civil rights leader of his generation, adding: “And we shall remind voters before the November elections which members of Congress are working to protect our freedom to vote and which members turned their backs on our long march to freedom.” 

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