Thread by @jcslattery

I am so very proud of the hell the #txlege voting rights movement gave the vote suppressors the last 8 months. Despite controlling all levers of govt, it took the suppressors that long to finally pass their bill, and we forced them to make some changes to make it less harmful.

We stopped poll watchers being able to videotape voters; judges being able to easily overturn elections; a ban on Souls to the Polls; poll watchers getting to commit one free election crime; and a racist new formula for distributing polling places.

We helped expose the authoritarian and racist motivations of the bills' supporters, from "purity of the ballot box" being listed as a stated goal in the bill to Paul Bettencourt's anti-Semitic remark about "Zuckerbucks" to Dade Phelan's banning of the word "racist."

We brought thousands of people to the Capitol and to rallies across the state to share their stories about how voter suppression affects them, many of them speaking out in a public arena for the very first time.

Working with our allies in the Capitol who broke qourum, we pushed federal voting rights legislation forward. There's just no way the US House would've passed the JLVRA in August or that the Senate would be poised to take up a bill in September if not for us in Texas.

Believe me, I know the passage of #SB1 is painful. I don't like when people on here tell you to treat your pain by just going out & registering more voters ASAP, instead of acknowledging your feelings. So I'm not going to do that--you should accept how you feel now and honor it.

But I would encourage you to also feel proud of everything you did to fight this bill at every turn and make it less harmful to voters. And to view this not as a "loss" or a "defeat," but as a setback--and a temporary one.

The efforts our community put into fighting this bill are light years ahead of what we did in 2019, which was itself light years ahead of prior years. The Texas voting rights movement comes out of the struggle over #SB1 stronger and more united than it has ever been.

When you look at all we accomplished, and how hard it was for the suppressors to do this even though they had all the formal power, I truly believe that #SB1 represents the high tide of voter suppression in Texas--and that from here on out the wind will be at our backs.

One of my favorite stories from history is from the Battle of Shiloh during the Civil War. The Union got its ass kicked that first day, and even the ferocious William Tecumseh Sherman thought they should retreat.

Sherman came up to Grant and said, “Well, Grant, we’ve had the devil’s own day, haven’t we?”

A grimly and quietly determined Grant replied: "Yes. Lick ’em to-morrow, though."

The next day, against all odds, the Union counterattacked and won the day.

It has been my pleasure to work with so many of you this year. Let's lick 'em tomorrow.