Democrats are warning that they could box themselves out of winning Senate races in key states unless they change the legislative filibuster and pass voting …
Democrats are warning that they could box themselves out of winning Senate races in key states unless they change the legislative filibuster and pass voting rights and election reform legislation. The fear boils down to a belief among Senate Democrats that unless they take federal action, changes being made by GOP-controlled state legislatures will make it harder for key constituency groups to vote, which would make it harder for Democrats to win elections. That, in turn, would make it harder for Democrats to keep or win back control of the Senate in the future. The argument has been made to Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) as colleagues try to sway the two holdouts to support changing the 60-vote legislative filibuster without GOP support. Unless Manchin and Sinema flip on the filibuster, Democrats will be unable to move their own voting rights measures. “There are many colleagues who are making that comment about their own races.… That’s certainly one of the factors,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told The Hill when asked if Democrats were making the case that they could lose reelection without voting legislation. “These are being done only in Republican states where Republicans control all the levers… so if it’s our voters that they’re targeting then we ought to have some responsibility to stand up for those voters,” Kaine added. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), speaking about changes to voting laws in various states during a recent interview with CNN, added that nearly every senator in the caucus had been lobbying Manchin and Sinema on voting rights including “going up to them and saying, ‘I’ll lose my election if … you allow these changes to occur.’” Schumer has vowed that he will force a vote on the legislative filibuster by Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan.17. Election experts have pointed to the timeline as a key cutoff point for getting federal election legislation passed by the start of the 2022 primaries and with enough time to survive likely legal challenges.
