“The Fight Is Not Over.” — VP Kamala Harris on Voting Rights. So What Next?
Following a party line, 50/50 procedural vote in the Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged what was already known long before the vote: that the For the People Act was successfully filibustered by the GOP and fell 10 votes short of the 60 needed for the bill to proceed to debate. But to reporters in the hallway after that vote, Harris remained firm in her resolve. “The fight is not over,” she said. Later she added, “The President and I are undeterred, and I know the American people are as well.”
But with the Act effectively procedurally stalled, what is that fight going to look like? Is there any hope for some kind of federal voting rights legislation to blunt voter suppression at the state level by the GOP? Progressives are starting to lean much harder on the Biden Administration to step up and fight, calling on the president to use his bully pulpit to rally the nation to the cause and to pressure Republican senators. What can we expect to see in the coming weeks?
First, some context. The decision to move forward with the vote, despite the inevitable loss, was a symbolic victory for the bare Democratic majority. This is because the caucus at the end held together with the onboarding of Senator Joe Manchin, who just weeks before had publicly come out against the bill and even declared he would vote against it. After civil rights groups rallied, met with him, and warned of significant fallout, Manchin amended his position and stated he would support a compromise bill, an idea that gained the immediate support of voting rights leader Stacey Abrams. Having Manchin back on board keeps alive the hope that there are 50 votes to pass at least a scaled-back but acceptable voting bill should it ever overcome a filibuster.
Further, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has got to be at least a bit concerned that there already is a bipartisan voting rights proposal, backed by Senator Lisa Murkowski and Manchin, that would restore the John Lewis Voting Rights Act on a nationwide basis and reinstate the idea of federal preclearance for any state level changes to voting rights. That proposal could form the foundation for a bipartisan voting rights bill along at least some of the lines Manchin has called for, which include key provisions for nationwide early voting and the elimination of partisan gerrymandering. Manchin and Murkowski already are working together with other centrist senators on a bipartisan infrastructure deal, and that somewhat unexpectedly gained the support of 11 GOP senators. With some horse trading on provisions, it’s not inconceivable that a new voting rights bill with those same senators could emerge.
Voting rights of course are not infrastructure, even though its key provisions are very popular among a strong majority of Americans. For Republicans, who cannot seem to attract new voters with their message and instead now resort to voter suppression and partisan redistricting to hang onto power, any expansion of voting rights might feel like political suicide. Progressives are correct that it will be up to the White House, along with Senate Democrats, to make voting rights a compelling national clarion call in order to up the pressure on more moderate GOP senators.
There is of course the added threat that Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema could agree to a tweak to the filibuster rules that would make it much harder for the GOP to block the bill, either by requiring them to actually show up with 41 members to vote against cloture, or even more forcefully by requiring a “talking filibuster” to continue unabated—the way it used to be in the 1960s when segregationists infamously tried to block voting rights legislation. A proposed change to the filibuster isn’t likely to come to the fore in the near future, however, not only because it appears Democrats don’t currently have the votes to pull it off, but because a compromise voting rights bill hasn’t yet been tested beyond the bipartisan proposal of Manchin and Murkowski. Manchin will almost certainly ask for a chance to make a compromise happen, just as he did with infrastructure, before the Democrats try to go it alone in some way.
In the meanwhile, the Department of Justice, which recently doubled the number of voting rights staff and attorneys in its Civil Rights Department, is readying to take multiple states to court over their voter suppression bills, and lawsuits have already been filed by voting rights advocates in seven states, with another seven on the brink of being sued. The media attention around these cases, particularly if federal judges begin striking down laws, could add moral and legal legitimacy to any new bill that might emerge.
Vice President Kamala Harris was therefore entirely correct in saying that the fight is not over on voting rights. It’s really only just begun.
As we say down in Texas - "Sic 'em!"