Progressive groups announce $30M voting rights effort

Left-leaning groups are launching a $30 million campaign aimed at persuading the Senate to pass a sweeping voting rights bill that most Republicans have come out against.

CNN reported Monday that Let America Vote, End Citizens United and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, an organization founded by former Attorney General Eric Holder, are joining forces in an effort to counter GOP messaging on the Democrat-led voting rights legislation.

“We’re going to make a run at Republicans,” said Adam Bozzi, vice president of End Citizens United, in a statement to CNN. “[But] whether it’s with 60 votes or some procedural change, we need to put this bill in a position to be passed.”

Some $20 million of the funds will be focused on ad campaigns persuading voters, while the remaining $10 million will go toward “a grassroots effort to try to get the legislation passed,” CNN reported, including outreach to lawmakers and state-level activists.

“If we ban gerrymandering, protect the right to vote, and give power back to the people, we can have a government that starts prioritizing the needs of its constituents instead of the special interests,” said Kelly Ward Burton, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee’s president.

The legislation may be unlikely to pass the Senate without changes to the filibuster, as no GOP senators have indicated a willingness to support the bill thus far. It previously passed the House at the beginning of March while failing to pick up a single vote from House Republicans.

The Biden administration has urged senators to support the legislation, but appears to be unlikely to push for an end to the legislative filibuster that seems likely to stymie much of the White House’s agenda in Congress.

“In the wake of an unprecedented assault on our democracy, a never before seen effort to ignore, undermine, and undo the will of the people, and a newly aggressive attack on voting rights taking place right now all across the country, this landmark legislation is urgently needed to protect the right to vote and the integrity of our elections, and to repair and strengthen American democracy,” said the White House upon the bill’s passage.