Juneteenth, Fort Worth, and the Sacred Work of Black and Brown Coalition, by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D., June 19, 2026

Juneteenth, Fort Worth, and the Sacred Work of Black and Brown Coalition

by

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

June 19, 2026

At today's National LULAC Convention in Fort Worth, Reverend Haynes offered a timely and powerful reminder on Juneteenth: “You don’t have a civil rights movement without a Black and Brown coalition” (Haynes, 2026). “Black and Brown” is, of course, an imperfect shorthand—one that cannot possibly contain the vast diversity of our peoples, histories, languages, cultures, and ancestral journeys

Yet it also names something real and necessary: our sheer numbers, our shared stakes, and our collective power when we refuse division. His words landed with prophetic force because they named what our histories have long taught us: our struggles for freedom, dignity, education, labor rights, voting rights, and democracy have never been separate. They have always been intertwined.

I am not exaggerating when I say that every invited visit I have ever made to speak in Fort Worth has been connected, intentionally, to the work of Black and Brown peace, unity, and coalition. Important leadership has been taking root there for many years. That is why Reverend Haynes’ words felt so resonant. Fort Worth is not merely a backdrop. It is a site of memory, organizing, and possibility.

Juneteenth itself reminds us of this deeper truth additionally underscored by Reverend Haynes. It commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation (National Park Service, n.d.; National Museum of African American History and Culture, n.d.). 

Dr. Opal Lee

And how poetic that in Fort Worth, we also honor Dr. Opal Lee, the beloved “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” whose lifelong advocacy helped make Juneteenth a federal holiday. In 2016, at the age of 89, Lee began walking from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., to build support for national recognition of Juneteenth. 

Her 2.5-mile walks in major cities throughout the U.S. symbolized the two and a half years that Black Texans remained enslaved after the Emancipation Proclamation (National Juneteenth Museum, n.d.; National Museum of African American History and Culture, n.d.). Juneteenth became a national holiday, signed into law by President Joe Biden on June 17, 2021.

God bless Opal Lee! 

The power of one, no less. 

The power of mission and calling.

Reverend Haynes’ message was clear: in a nation “conceived in liberty,” the unfinished work of freedom belongs to all of us (Haynes, 2026). 

It is both prophetic and poetic that LULAC would gather on Juneteenth in Fort Worth, a city so closely connected to Dr. Opal Lee’s historic witness. This day calls us not only to commemorate emancipation, but to resist every effort to divide Black and Brown communities from one another.

His reminder that we do not have a civil rights movement without Black and Brown coalition speaks directly to the work many of us are trying to sustain across Texas. In Austin, Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe and I formed Black Brown Dialogues on Policy to deepen precisely this kind of relationship—one grounded in trust, shared struggle, policy analysis, legislative advocacy, and youth leadership. Black Brown Dialogues on Policy has brought together academics, students, community members, advocates, and lawmakers to confront anti-DEI policy, defend ethnic studies, and build solidarity across communities (Black Brown Dialogues on Policy, n.d.).

Through this work, we have mentored many young people into a vision of public life rooted not in division, but in solidarity, study, strategy, and service. That matters because coalition is not merely a response to crisis. It is how we practice democracy. It is how we build the relationships necessary to defend one another when the institutions around us falter.

This is the spirit of Juneteenth, too. It is not only a day of remembrance, but a call to solidarity. It asks us to honor freedom by defending it together. It asks us to remember Dr. Opal Lee’s Fort Worth-rooted witness and to continue building the bridges that others would prefer to see broken.

Our coalitions are not optional. They are the seedbed of democracy. From civil rights to educational equity, from voting rights to the defense of public institutions, Black and Brown unity remains one of the most powerful antidotes to authoritarianism, erasure, and fear.

So today, I honor Reverend Haynes’ words, Dr. Opal Lee’s legacy, National and Texas LULAC, Fort Worth—as well as Dallas, by the way—that boasts a long history of coalition work, and the youth we are mentoring into this struggle. 

Juneteenth is a celebration, yes—but it is also a summons. It reminds us that delayed freedom is still unfinished freedom, and that none of us gets free alone.

Thanks to Dr. Ana Coca for sharing Rev. Haynes' speech.

Sí se puede! Yes we can!

Happy Juneteenth! ¡Feliz Juneteenth!

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

LULAC Council 4721, District VII

Education Committee Chair, Texas LULAC

References

Black Brown Dialogues on Policy. (n.d.). Virtual town hall: DEI and ethnic studies policy in the 88th session of the Texas State Legislature. https://youtu.be/xEi3Rtc0QQ0?si=eYxJeGqbnUQg3Xf1

Haynes, F. D., III. (2026, June 19). Remarks at the National LULAC Convention [Speech]. National LULAC Convention, Fort Worth, TX.

Jackson, A. (2021, June 17). Why 94-year-old activist Opal Lee marched to make Juneteenth a national holiday,Variety. https://variety.com/2021/politics/features/activist-opal-lee-juneteenth-holiday-1234998507/

National Juneteenth Museum. (n.d.). Dr. Opal Lee: The grandmother of Juneteenth. https://nationaljuneteenthmuseum.org/ms-opal-lee

National Museum of African American History and Culture. (n.d.). Our American story: Juneteenth, Smithsonian Institution. https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/our-american-story-juneteenth

National Park Service. (n.d.). Juneteenth National Independence Day. U.S. Department of the Interior. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/npscelebrates/juneteenth.htm

TWO BIG WINS for LULAC Last Week: Federal judge strikes down Texas voter residency law (SB 1111)

Geez, this is BIG news. It's hard to keep up, but check out this piece on  Federal judge strikes down Texas voter residency law (SB 1111) that involved a lengthy deposition by LULAC President Domingo Garcia. The new law would have prohibited Texans from establishing a residence for voting purposes and would have resulted in unintended consequences adversely impacting economically vulnerable, transient folks. They need representation, too.

LULAC President Domingo Garcia's detail on the matter below provides a more complete statement on recent developments. The world may be on fire, but the cause for social justice, particularly protecting and defending the right to vote, charges forward. 

-Angela Valenzuela

#votersuppression

August 6, 2022

Saludos to the LULAC Familia,

From the Office of President Domingo Garcia

Let me take a quick minute of your time to share TWO BIG WINS for LULAC this week!

Tuesday, the federal court in Austin delivered a major victory for millions of Hispanic voters in Texas. The judge struck down SB1111 as illegal and unconstitutional. I testified for six hours in a deposition against SB1111. I will fight to my last breath to make sure my Raza’s right to vote is protected. The court agreed that the state could not use unreasonable restrictions to keep us from voting.

Take a moment and read more here:

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/state/2022/08/03/federal-judge-strikes-down-texas-voter-residency-law/65390585007/

Then Thursday, another huge LULAC victory in a fight that started in 2019. LULAC led several organizations, and we sued Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Attorney General for taking close to 100,000 names off the voter rolls. Most were Latinos who could vote legally.

LULAC won, and the names were restored to the rolls, but the Texas Secretary of State has refused to reveal how they picked the names they took off for nearly three years. LULAC kept fighting to get the truth.

This week the judge ruled LULAC was correct and ordered the secret process released. This information will show the racial profiling state officials committed. LULAC will decide whether the U.S. Justice Department needs to investigate civil rights violations.

Read why this LULAC victory is so important:

https://campaignlegal.org/update/texas-must-make-new-voter-purge-program-records-accessible-public

This work is what we do every day across the United States. You are the backbone, the voice, and the power of LULAC. I am proud to serve as your national president and promise to protect LULAC from any threat. I appreciate your support, and together, we will win!

Hasta La Victoria

Domingo Garcia

Domingo García – LULAC National President

"Texas Democrats May Be The Most Potent Force For Voting Rights," Jan. 15, 2021

That's the point! We wish our dems well!

-Angela Valenzuela

Texas House Democratic walkout successful with Washington arrival, plans to goad U.S. Senate by Maria Recio

There is absolutely no more time. The U.S. Congress must pass federal voting rights legislation before their August recess. Extremism in Texas by Texas republicans that want to strip people of color of their vote requires desperate means, even as the Texas House authorizes warrants for their arrest. From an Austin American-Statesman piece from today, Governor Abbott says that "he intends for House members to be detained upon their return to the state."

This is what makes our House Democrats courageous defenders of democracy, my friends. 

Do link to the video press conference to listen closely to our representatives' expressed statements of the situation in which we find ourselves.  They are so incredibly inspiring. We cannot thank our brave House Democrats for representing the cause of fair and equitable voting rights and elections. Congress must act now!

-Angela Valenzuela

#votersuppression #DemocracyAtRisk

Texas House Democratic walkout successful with Washington arrival, plans to goad U.S. Senate

By Maria Recio

Special to American-Statesman

July 13, 2021

WASHINGTON DULLES AIRPORT — More than 50 Texas House Democrats arrived at the Dulles International Airport Monday evening, leaving the state in a gambit to deny Republicans a quorum and thus prevent a vote Democrats say curbs voting rights that is stacked against them.

Their only weapon, they say in the GOP-controlled Legislature, is to remove themselves and force gridlock.

It is the second time this summer that Texas Democrats have resorted to this tactic — avoiding the House chamber — but this time they fled the state, not just the state Capitol building, arriving in Washington in style by two private jets.

An irate Republican Gov. Greg Abbott had called the special session that is now underway on a number of issues to force Democrats to vote.

More:Texas Democrats leave state to block GOP voting bill in special session

The hurried nature of the way things had come together as Texas Democrats reverted to their exit strategy was clear at the Washington press conference, with a gathering at nightfall scheduled for 7:15 p.m. CDT near the picturesque Dulles terminal hastily pulled away to the much less scenic cell phone waiting area parking lot. The move was made at the insistence of airport officials, though no reason was given.

“We left Texas, not because we want to,” state Rep. Chris Turner, D-Arlington and chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters in the Dulles parking lot. “It breaks our heart to do it. We are in a fight to save our democracy."

Turner confirmed an earlier report made to the American-Statesman that the $100,000 cost of the two flights was being paid for by the Caucus.

Another press conference is scheduled at the U.S. Capitol House triangle at 9 a.m. Central.

More:Some Senate Democrats plan to leave Texas too, but quorum appears safe

Turner said the Texas House Democrats would stay in Washington until Aug. 7th, the end of the special session, and would work on getting the U.S. Senate to approve two voting protection bills. He told the Statesman that the state lawmakers were still formulating their plans to visit U.S. senators to make the case for voting rights, which they said the Texas GOP was determined to restrict.

“Texas is the hardest state to vote in already,” Turner said. As for the determination on display by the dozens of state Democratic lawmakers, he said, “Our democracy is at stake.”

More:Can Texas Democrats be arrested for fleeing the state? What does it mean for the special session?

Texas lawmakers see the way out for them is to have the Congress pass voting rights law that would override state efforts to eliminate such conveniences as drive-through voting or same day registration.

“We need Congress to act now to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to protect Texans — and all Americans — from the Trump Republicans’ nationwide war on democracy,” Turner said.

Texas Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, known as Ms. T, said, “I left because I am tired of sitting like a hostage while Republicans take away the rights of our citizens to vote.”

State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, said, “There is nothing special about this session. This is a suppression session.”

But Republicans kept up a chorus of complaints back in Texas.

“This taxpayer funded vacation was taken at the expense of Texans who elected us to lead,” said state Rep. Jacey Jetton, R-Sugar Land. “Without even attempting to negotiate or debate the issues, the House Democrats took a private jet to D.C. in order to avoid hard conversations, all while continuing to receive a paycheck from the tax dollars of hard-working Texans.”

Texas House members will be able to press their case for the Senate to pass voting rights measures during their impromptu lobbying visit — the U.S. House has already passed them.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, welcomed his fellow Democrats. “Greg Abbott and his Republican cohorts have messed with Texan voters one too many times. Our Texas Democrats are breaking quorum rather than being accomplices to breaking democracy. They rightly recognize that our democracy is only as strong as our voting rights.”

These Texas republicans' days are numbered and they know it. They legislate like they're backed into a corner, fighting for their lives despite being the party in power. And they still lack a legislative fix to the Texas electrical grid where over a hundred Texans lost their lives in February's winter storm.

Their focus instead was on disenfranchising lower-income, people of color from the ballot box. In the long term, and the short term, as well, this is not sustainable. 

There is no grand, lofty vision here. It's all about survival and protecting their incumbencies, the lowest level of resonance for a polity. 

They're showing their every card and can no longer hide from their self-serving decisions and commitments, even despite their 6am vote when none of us were awake to observe this. 

My friends, it is abundantly clear to me that if political disenfranchisement is their only play, they do not deserve to govern. For the rest of us, let this be the very same ground for radical hope.

To members of Congress, do take notice and pass "For the People Act (HR 1) and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. 

-Angela Valenzuela

In 6 a.m. vote, divided Texas Senate approves GOP elections bill after all-night debate

Chuck Lindell

Austin American-Statesman

May 30, 2021

The Texas Senate, voting along party lines, approved a sweeping Republican elections bill shortly after 6 a.m. Sunday after a lively overnight debate led mostly by Democrats that had begun 7½ hours earlier.

Senate Bill 7, known as the Election Integrity Protection Act, must be approved by the Texas House before midnight Sunday. The bill is eligible for a vote at 4:50 p.m. according to the House calendar.

Democrats criticized the bill's restrictions, particularly a ban on 24-hour voting and drive-thru voting that was popular with nonwhite voters last year in Harris County, for disproportionately affecting people of color.

"I represent a majority African American district, and we benefited from the drive-thru voting that you're trying to ban now. I feel like you're coming for my district," said Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, adding that leaders with the FBI, Department of Justice and Texas secretary of state's office acknowledged that the 2020 election was safe, secure and free of widespread fraud.

Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, said SB 7 was an overreaction.

"We've had next to no fraud, and this has been documented at the federal level and the state level. But instead you're rewriting the Election Code," she said.

A look at the bill:GOP unveils final version of Texas elections bill, which includes more restrictions

SB 7 is one of several GOP efforts in statehouses around the country to narrow voting opportunities, particularly in urban counties that tend to vote Democratic, after Republicans echoed former President Donald Trump's claims that last year's presidential election was stolen. No widespread fraud was ever uncovered.

But Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, defended his bill as Saturday became Sunday, and he was still at it as sunrise neared — rejecting claims that the bill targeted nonwhite voters or that it was a solution in search of a problem.

"The provisions apply equally across the state. They are not limited to a particular group or particular area," he said.

A rush to debate

The Senate and House had passed widely different versions of SB 7, leading to a conference committee to work out the differences.

That committee's final version of the bill was filed and distributed to senators at 3:36 p.m. Saturday. Less than three hours later, Hughes stood in the Senate and proposed waiving the rule that requires a 24-hour delay before the bill could be considered by the Senate.

Democrats, who had been huddling in private to discuss their options only a few minutes earlier, objected to the speed of events.

More:After House roadblock, GOP senators revive bill limiting school discussions of race, social issues

"I would ask that we take the time that's necessary to understand the changes, to understand the entirety of this before we are asked to vote on a bill that affects every single voter in Texas," said Sen. Beverly Powell, D-Burleson.

Hughes replied that he planned to give senators a private briefing at 8 p.m., bringing them up to speed on a bill that grew from 23 pages to 67 pages in conference committee — adding that there would be plenty of time to discuss SB 7 in public during what he expected to be a long and vigorous floor debate that would not begin until after 10 p.m. to allow more time to study the legislation.

Sen. Jose Menéndez, D-San Antonio, said the late debate would occur when most Texans would not be watching in person or online.

"How did you decide that 10 p.m. tonight was the right time? Does that seem like the best time to be creating very important policy-making decisions after 10 p.m.?" he said. "Tomorrow we have the full day to debate any legislative measures, do we not?"

But Hughes noted the looming deadline — all conference committee reports must get a vote by midnight Sunday — and Republicans voted as a bloc to waive the 24-hour delay.

The Senate returned to SB 7 shortly after 10:30 p.m. by taking up a resolution giving the conference committee permission to include provisions that had not been part of the bills passed by the House and Senate.

Hughes, who was co-chairman of the conference committee, said many of the sections added to SB 7 were taken from other GOP election bills that had passed the Senate or were considered in committee, while other ideas cropped up during negotiations with his co-chairman, Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park.

Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, called the resolution an affront to the legislative process.

"This seems more like you’re trying to get in bills that you couldn’t pass, or you thought of some other way to do some things that many of the members of this chamber don’t want you to do," Johnson said.

After the Republican majority voted to approve Senate Resolution 547, senators began debating SB 7 at 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

A pattern of late nights

Partisan disagreements have pushed lawmakers into several late-night and early-morning sessions in the past several weeks as Republicans pressed an aggressively conservative agenda this session.

A rancorous debate over SB 7 pushed the Texas House beyond 3 a.m. on May 7, setting the stag for this weekend's showdown.

And a fight over House Bill 3979 found the Senate voting at 2 a.m. on May 22 over legislation to limit how public school teachers handle discussions of race and racism in the classroom.

The Senate made wholesale changes on the floor, putting the bill in danger when House Democrats successfully argued that several amendments violated House rules.

With no time to fix the bill by traditional means, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick allowed Hughes to make a motion to recede, a little-known parliamentary maneuver that stripped the bill of all Senate changes and passed HB 3979 in its original House form on a party-line vote.

Democratic objections that the Texas Constitution did not allow bills to be passed that late in the session were overruled. 

The session ends on Monday, with lawmakers still not having agreed upon priority legislation, including fixing the Texas electrical grid after millions of Texans were plunged into cold and darkness during the deadly February winter storms.

Voting groups fear Texas about to exceed Georgia's limits by Stef. W. Kigh | Axios

It's been that kind of legislative session. We must get Congress to vote on the "For the People Act (HR 1) and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Why? This piece in Roll Call says why: 

Why Congress must pass HR 1 and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act:Republican state legislators nationwide are already moving fast to restrict our freedom to vote

This should be a priority for the federal government.

-Angela Valenzuela

Voting groups fear Texas about to exceed Georgia's limits

Stef W. Kight

Voters in El Paso, Texas, wait to cast their ballots in the 2018 race between Beto O'Rourke and Sen. Ted Cruz. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Local advocacy groups, big business and former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke are fighting a pair of Texas voting bills they brand as suppressive, each of which could pass the Republican-controlled legislature as soon as next week.

Why it matters: Advocates say Texas' pending changes are worse than those that recently caused an uproar and boycotts in Georgia. The fight comes as the Texas population is rapidly growing and diversifying — and turning more Democratic.

• "So much of what we learned about Georgia, we learned after it was too late," O'Rourke told Axios. "In Texas, if there's anything positive about the situation, it's that we could still win this."

Driving the news: Republicans have the political muscle to pass the provisions whenever they want. "Hands down something is going to get passed," Chris Hollins, a former Harris County clerk who opposes the bills, told Axios.

• Democrats and groups like Texas Freedom Network and the ACLU are ramping up the pressure. After seeing the outrage from big business over the Georgia bill, groups are trying to get major companies to speak out and force Republicans to back off.
• Texas is already considered to be one of the most restrictive voting states. It saw the highest voter turnout in 30 years in 2020 but came in 44th of the 50 states for turnout rate, according to data from Elect Project.

What to watch: American Airlines and Dell Technologies have already come out against the bills.

• Advocates have been pressuring other Texas-based companies to get on board, and they expect to see more speak out in the coming days.

Details: The bills in the Texas Senate and House would end 24-hour and drive-thru voting — options that were disproportionately used by voters of color last year, according to the Texas Civil Rights Project.

• They also would add criminal penalties for election officials who send out applications to vote by mail to voters who had not requested them and would provide more access for partisan poll watchers.
• The changes would especially impact more progressive Texas cities, the New York Times reported.
• The sweeping legislation has been pushed by Texas House Elections Committee Chairman Briscoe Cain — who drove to Pennsylvania to help the Trump campaign fight the 2020 election results.

The state of play: The House bill — HB-6 — is already out of committee and could make it to the floor as soon as next week.

• The Senate bill — SB7 — was passed at the start of this month. It is now expected to be voted on in committee in the House as soon as Thursday evening after Cain brought it up at the last minute, Charlie Bonner, communications director for the nonpartisan advocacy group MOVE Texas, told Axios.
• Republicans also have a flurry of duplicative, piecemeal bills ready to roll if the bigger packages fail.

The other side: Texas Republicans have pushed the legislation, saying that it will normalize voting across the state.

• In response to American Airlines' opposition to the Senate bill, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick released a statement, saying, "The majority of Texas supports maintaining the integrity of our elections. ... Senate Bill 7 includes comprehensive reforms that will ensure voting in Texas is consistent statewide and secure."
• Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said in a statement: “Texas is protecting the number of early voting days, which is longer than allowed in states like New York and Delaware. And, we are extending hours for early voting."
• "Also, Texas ensures that voting by mail is protected from fraud, which is important."

Raphael Warnock gives FIRST Senate floor speech, is APPLAUDED—March 17, 2021

Listen to this powerful, speech by Georgie Senator and Reverend Raphael Warnock on the Senate floor yesterday, March 17, 2021.  

Listen to his impassioned plea for voting rights. Voting rights ARE an issue bigger than the filibuster such that the former should not get subordinated to the latter. It is indeed a contradiction, as he states,  "to say we must protect minority rights in the Senate while refusing to protect minority rights in the society."

Do listen to his entire speech. He ends it so eloquently with these words:

"Democracy is the political enactment of a spiritual idea, the sacred worth of all human beings, The notion that we all have within us a spark of the Divine and a right to participate in the shaping of our destiny. Reinhold Niebuhr was right. 'Humanity's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but humanity's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.'"

Thanks for leading, Senator Warnock. We shall overcome this enemy from within that threatens to undermine our highest ideals as a country.

-Angela Valenzuela

#JohnLewisVotingRightsAdvancementAct

Democracy is at Risk, but Stacey Abrams Has a Plan

It should concern is deeply that democracy is at risk with over 100 bills aimed at restricting voting getting filed and making their way through their state legislatures (see CNN report). As we know, the right to vote impacts lawmakers, lawmaking, and everything pertinent to a democracy. 

The formidable voting rights advocate, Stacey Abrams, has a plan and I hope it works.  Thanks to Dr. Bettina Love for sharing.

-Angela Valenzuela 

#votingrights #democracy #DemocracyVision #votingrightsforall #VotingRights #voting

Stacey Abrams Has a Plan to Dismantle the Filibuster and Protect Voting Rights

And she thinks it can get support from reluctant centrist Democrats.

by Ari Berman

Stacey Abrams speaks at campaign event for Rev. Raphael Warnock in Atlanta on November 3.Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images

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As Republicans in the Georgia state legislature passed a series of voting restrictions over the past 10 days, Stacey Abrams, the state’s leading voting rights activist, saw an ever more pressing need to reform the filibuster in the US Senate. And she has a plan for how to do it.

The Georgia legislation and the Senate rules might seem unrelated, but to Abrams, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in 2018 and founder of the voting rights group Fair Fight Action, they’re directly connected. “Republicans are rolling back the clock on voting rights,” she says. “And the only way to head that off is to invoke the elections clause of the Constitution, which allows the Congress—and the Congress alone—to set the time, place and manner of elections at a federal level.”

The problem is that Republicans will surely use the filibuster to set an impossible 60-vote threshold for any such effort—and that two centrist Democratic senators, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, have said they oppose abolishing the filibuster. That’s why Abrams proposes tweaking it to allow major voting rights legislation to pass, and she thinks her plan can get reluctant Democrats on board. 

In the same way that Democrats can pass budget bills and confirm judges and Cabinet members with a simple majority, legislation protecting voting rights should also be exempt from the 60-vote requirement, Abrams says.  

“The judicial appointment exception, the Cabinet appointment exception, the budget reconciliation exception, are all grounded in this idea that these are constitutionally prescribed responsibilities that should not be thwarted by minority imposition,” she says. “And we should add to it the right to protect democracy. It is a foundational principle in our country. And it is an explicit role and responsibility accorded only to Congress in the elections clause in the Constitution.”

PODCAST

Listen to reporter Ari Berman interview Stacey Abrams, on this episode of the Mother Jones Podcast:

 

I spoke to Abrams on Monday, just hours before the Georgia Senate repealed no-excuse absentee voting, part of a series of bills passed in recent days to restrict voting rights that Abrams called “Jim Crow in a suit and tie.”

“This isn’t about retribution or revenge,” Abrams says. “This is about protection of the fundamentals of our nation.”

But neither bill will pass the Senate if Democrats don’t eliminate the filibuster, which Abrams calls “a racist procedural rule that is grounded in this notion that the minority must be protected unless we disagree with what the minority needs.”

Abrams testified before the House in late February in favor of HR 1, the most ambitious democracy reform billsince the Voting Rights Act, which would boost voting access through policies like automatic and Election Day registration, early voting, and expanded voting by mail. “It’s the reform we need that will provide protection, provide a foundational level of access, regardless of your geography,” she says. She also urged passage of another House proposal, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would require states with a history of discrimination to once again get federal approval for any changes to voting laws and procedures, after the Supreme Court struck down this requirement from the 1965 Voting Rights Act in 2013. The measure is needed, she says, “to make certain we don’t watch [voting rights] be butchered or eviscerated.”

I asked Abrams what she would say to Democrats like Manchin and Sinema to persuade them to go along with a “democracy exception” to the filibuster.

“This isn’t about retribution or revenge,” Abrams says. “This is about protection of the fundamentals of our nation, that if we do not protect the participation of voters in our election system, if we do not permit states to do what they must to protect their voters, then we will find ourselves losing our democratic values, losing our democracy. And so I would say to Democrats who are hesitant that short of completely revising the filibuster, we have to make certain that a minority of people cannot be in power in the Senate, and therefore deny the basic principles of citizenship to millions of Americans.”

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) has floated a similar idea, and an increasing number of Democratic senators are now expressing openness to eliminating the filibuster, especially for bills like HR 1. 

“I would get rid of the filibuster,” Amy Klobuchar, the chair of the Senate Rules Committee and a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, told me on March 3, when the House passed HR 1. “I have favored filibuster reform for a long time and now especially for this critical election bill.”

Manchin said on Sunday he’s open to changes to the filibuster, such as forcing Republicans to continuously occupy the Senate floor to block bills. And if Republicans keep passing restrictions on the right to vote, a proposal like Abrams’ could start to find a broader consensus.