Voting Rights

The emails and calls have been pouring into my office, but the letters are a little slower. A disabled veteran with Parkinson’s called to say: “This is not the America I fought for.” He is not receiving prescriptions from the Postal Service on time.

WASHINGTON - In a rare moment in the Trump era, several Texas Republicans pushed back against President Donald Trump on Thursday when he floated in a tweet the idea of delaying the presidential election in November. The president does not have the legal authority to move Election Day; that power resides with Congress.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump floated the idea of delaying the presidential election on Thursday morning, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and what he views as the high risk of fraud as mail-in balloting becomes more widespread.

In the spring, we commemorated the 54th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma, Alabama. Brutal beatings awaited those, like my friend and colleague John Lewis, who peacefully marched for civil and voting rights. Their hard-won victories remain threatened. Texas is ground zero for voter suppression, replacing brutal batons with more subtle Republican suppression: voter roll purges, repressive ID laws, altered polling locations, and crooked gerrymandering.

Calling state officials "Trumpettes" trying to avoid accountability and obstruct access to the truth, U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, and Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, pressured Gov. Greg Abbott, former Secretary of State David Whitley, and Attorney General Ken Paxton to fork over documents requested by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as it investigates Texas' flawed and discriminatory voter purge.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talked about how this act is important to the constitution. Congressman Lloyd Dogget, as well as other Texas voting rights advocates, were in attendance.