Chuck Schumer To Meet With Texas Democrats To Plot Strategy To Pass Voting Rights Bill

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will be meeting with the Texas Democrats who left Texas to plot a strategy on passing a voting rights bill.

According to CNN’s Ali Zaslav:

Schumer says he plans to meet with Texas Democrats at the US Capitol today “to plot out strategy and to praise them for what they are doing,” after the lawmakers left the state Monday in an effort to block GOP from passing restrictive new voting laws

— Ali Zaslav (@alizaslav) July 13, 2021

The Texas Democrats Have Bought Democrats In Congress Some Time

The Texas Democrats say that they can hold off the Texas voter suppression bill for weeks, so it is up to Democrats in Congress to use that time wisely to get federal legislation passed.

It would be nice if Schumer could snap his fingers and get his bill through the Senate, but with Democrats holding the slimmest of majorities in the Senate, and Sen. Manchin opposing the House version of the For The People Act and gutting the filibuster, it is going to take some nuance to get the bill through.

The option that still makes the most sense is for Democrats to include Manchin’s For The People Act compromise into the infrastructure reconciliation bill. 

The voting rights in the infrastructure plan remains the most viable. Democrats won’t be able to get 60 stand-alone votes for a voting rights bill, but they can get 50 for the infrastructure reconciliation plan.

The fact that Schumer is strategizing with Texas Democrats is another step that reveals Democratic coordination at all levels of government to protect voting rights.

Getting there could be messy, but steps are being taken to protect voting rights from the Republican attack on democracy.