1/ I'm proud of every Texan who has marched, rallied, called their state legislators & spent hours upon hours at the state capitol trying to stop this anti-voter bill from passing.
Today’s vote on SB 1 may have you doubting whether all that effort made a difference. But it did.
2/ You forced Republican lawmakers to walk back on some of SB 1's worst provisions, brought national attention to the fight for democracy in Texas, and lit a fire under Congress to make progress on legislation that can give us a fighting chance to save democracy in America.
3/ Now isn't the time to give up or give in. If we push President Biden to do everything in his power to reform the filibuster, we can pass the For the People Act & John Lewis Voting Rights Act—and roll back anti-voter laws in Texas and across the country. whitehouse.gov/contact/
4/ And while we push at the federal level, let's also commit ourselves to registering all 3 million eligible, but unregistered voters in the state of Texas. Let's bring as many people into our democracy and into this fight as we can.
56 years ago today, President Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act into law.
It happened because people protested, marched & put their lives on the line to engage the conscience of the nation — and because LBJ used the full force of his office to ensure the law would pass.
Today, as we face a weakened Voting Rights Act, and as state legislatures across the country erect new barriers to the ballot box, it’s going to take another historic movement and strong leadership from President Biden to pass new federal voting rights legislation.
Here in Texas, Governor Abbott just called a second special session yesterday to again try to force through voter suppression legislation that would effectively disenfranchise tens of thousands of Texans.
We are running out of time. We need Congress and President Biden to act.