NewDEAL Leaders Respond to Voting Rights Act Rollback
News Category: Media
NewDEAL Leaders Respond to SCOTUS Ruling Rolling Back Voting Rights
NewDEAL Leaders are responding to this week’s Supreme Court decision weakening Voting Right Act protections that have supported minority representation. The Court ruled that a Louisiana congressional district map relied “too heavily on race,” with NewDEALer Louisiana Senator Royce Duplessis responding that “What they’re effectively doing is changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game. It’s rigging the system.”
- Louisiana Senator Royce Duplessis decried the ruling saying, “What they’re effectively doing is changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game. It’s rigging the system.”
- Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson called upon the Michigan state legislature to pass the Michigan Voting Rights Act , which would enshrine the right to vote in the state
- Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said this ruling would create new weaknesses in American democracy, making “the powerful less accountable to the public.” In a joint statement Oregon State Representative Ben Bowman emphasized the ruling “erodes the voting strength of Black, Latino, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Native American communities across America.”
- In response to federal pressure to gerrymander maps, Tennessee State Senate Democratic Leader Raumesh Akbari claimed that “redrawing congressional district lines for the explicit purpose of stripping Black Memphians of their political power is not redistricting, it’s voter disenfranchisement.” She urged her colleagues to instead focus on issues that hurt Memphians, like the affordability crisis.
- Illinois Lieutenant Governor and US Senate Candidate Juliana Stratton vows to fight to keep the Voting Rights Act, citing “I come with the lens of my father, who marched from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 to protest voting rights discrimination, and so many others who marched and protested and raised their voices. And here we are 60 years later, 61 years later, and look at what’s happening.”
- Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels argued that the court’s ruling “gives further license to those who seek to racially gerrymander districts for their own political purposes,” and raised concerns the decision could block the rise of young Black leaders.
