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Judd Legum Profile picture
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6 Apr, 7 tweets, 3 min read
1. Mitch McConnell took $4.3 million from corporations over the last 5 years to fund his campaigns and now he wants corporations to "stay out of politics"

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2. McConnell still wants corporations to send him money

And therefore wants corporations to back his efforts to block legislation to strengthen voting rights

McConnell is demanding corporations stop speaking out against voter suppression bills

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3. This is odd, to say the least, considering McConnell has fought against virtually all restrictions on corporate political spending.

He has done as much as anyone to give large corporations "as much clout as possible in our politics"

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4. McConnell isn't just SUGGESTING corporations shut up about voting rights. He's THREATENING corporations.

McConnell says there will be "serious consequences" for corporations that don't just silently send checks

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5. In the style of a mob boss, McConnell won't elaborate on the "consequences."

But his GOP colleagues are working on a bill to strip MLB of its antitrust exemption as retribution for speaking out about Georgia's voter suppression law

popular.info/p/mcconnell-ve…
6. This is what an actual First Amendment violation looks like.

"Congress shall make no law..."

Here, Republicans in Congress are trying to make a law to punish a corporation for its speech.

At the moment, they lack the power to follow through.

popular.info/p/mcconnell-ve…
7. We are also seeing Republicans in Georgia and Texas attempt to punish corporations speaking out against voter suppression.

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More from @JuddLegum

Judd Legum Profile picture
8 Apr
1. Republicans in Florida are advancing a proposal they claim will ensure "intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity" at colleges but will actually create a dystopian surveillance state at the state's public universities

Follow along if interested

popular.info/p/how-not-to-p…
2. First, the Florida bill would "require public universities to survey students, faculty and staff about their beliefs and viewpoints"

But it "offers no assurances that the survey’s answers will be anonymous" and doesn't' say how the data will be used

popular.info/p/how-not-to-p…
3. Second, the Florida bill allows students to record any class without the professor's permission and use the recording " in connection with a complaint to the public institution of higher education" or "as evidence in a criminal or civil proceeding"

popular.info/p/how-not-to-p…
Read 8 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
7 Apr
1. In an angry, rambling press conference yesterday Texas Lt. Gov @DanPatrick claimed SB 7 doesn't limit early, Election Day or mail-in voting.

Then he listed all the ways SB 7 restricts early, Election Day or mail-in voting.

popular.info/p/dan-patrick-…
@DanPatrick 2. @DanPatrick freely admitted that the bill targeted Harris County, home of Houston and many Black voters.

He described Harris County as a crime-ravaged hellhole.

popular.info/p/dan-patrick-…
3. @DanPatrick ticked through all the ways SB 7 would prevent Harris from continuing to offer options that makes voting easier, like drive-thru voting

He claimed this was doing people of color a favor because most don't own cars. (Seriously.)

popular.info/p/dan-patrick-…
Read 9 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
6 Apr
1. You might think that there is no chance to stop voter suppression legislation in Texas because Republicans control everything.

But passage is not certain.

The key chamber is the Texas House.

Follow along if interested.
2. There are 150 seats in the Texas House. That means you need 76 votes to defeat bill on the floor.

There are 67 Democrats and they are all opposed to voting restrictions

So that means you need to flip NINE Republicans to defeat the bill
3. Already, we are seeing some potential Republican defections.

(1) Rep. Kyle Kacal: "I don’t know if the measures that are being talked about are necessary."

(2) Rep. Lyle Larson: "Good ideas will attract more voters than suppression will deny."
Read 5 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
5 Apr
1. BREAKING

@Facebook pledged to suspend political donations for the first 90 days of 2021, then donated $50,000 to @RSLC, a Republican group pushing voter suppression laws

popular.info/p/facebook-ple…
@Facebook @RSLC 2. The primary goal of the @RSLC is to elect Republicans to state legislatures and other state-level offices across the country.

In 2021, Republican state legislators introduced 361 bills to restrict voting in 47 states.

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@Facebook @RSLC 3. @Facebook routed the donation through a fundraising vehicle that the RSLC set up in Virginia, a state with lax campaign finance laws that allows unlimited direct corporate contributions.

popular.info/p/facebook-ple…
Read 12 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
4 Apr
1. I think this approach to the Georgia's new law is deeply flawed.

It focuses on the hypothetical effect of the law while skipping over the motivation and the impact on individual voters.

Follow along if interested.
2. First, we don't know the effect of this law in the future. Nate admits the shortened runoff period could impact "turnout in exactly the kind of close, low-turnout race where it could easily be decisive"

Well, a close runoff election just determined control of the Senate!
3. So I don't think running these changes through an algorithm is the right approach. We need to look at the intent. And this bill is sponsored by the people who falsely claimed the election was stolen from Trump. The intent of the bill is to validate Trump's claims.
Read 8 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
3 Apr
REMINDER: @ATT has donated $574,500 over the last three years to the Texas officials pushing voter suppression legislation and now CEO John Stankey says that election laws are too "complicated" for the company to take a clear position

popular.info/p/texas-voter-… Image
@ATT If you work for @ATT and have thoughts or information about your company's position on Texas' legislation to restrict voting, please contact me

DMs open, jlegum@protonmail.com

I will protect your identity
For updates and accountability journalism on voter suppression legislation in Georgia, Texas, Arizona, Florida, and around the country sign up for the newsletter

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Read 4 tweets

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