Joe Manchin’s firm stance against Democrats’ sweeping election overhaul bill is turning simmering frustration among his fellow Democrats to a full boil, prompting accusations of upholding Jim Crow, comparisons to Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and a swipe at his houseboat lifestyle choice.
The criticism stems from Manchin’s linchpin status in the Senate as one of the more conservative Democrats in the 50-member caucus. There are 50 Senate Republicans, meaning Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris casts tiebreaking votes. It’s a position that leaves Manchin in a pivotal role in deciding what bills pass the Senate or even get considered.
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The turning point in liberal criticism against Manchin was an op-ed from the West Virginia Democratic senator in the Charleston Gazette-Mail on Sunday.
“I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act,” Manchin said. “Furthermore, I will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster.”
Instead, Manchin argued, focus should be on a different piece of election reform legislation: the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which aims to strengthen the Voting Rights Act of 1965 after a 2013 Supreme Court decision found that the formula for determining whether a state’s voting laws can be reviewed by a federal court is outdated.
‘IT WOULD DIVIDE US FURTHER’: MANCHIN TO VOTE AGAINST DEMOCRATS’ ELECTION BILL
“Manchin’s op-ed might as well be titled, ‘Why I’ll vote to preserve Jim Crow,’” New York Rep. Mondaire Jones said in a tweet. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez retweeted Jones.
Dubbed H.R. 1 in the House and S. 1 in the Senate, the For the People Act would create sweeping changes, such as nationwide automatic voter registration and public financing for federal elections. It would also allow felons who have completed incarcerations to vote and require states to allow any voter to vote by mail. It passed the House in January, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he will bring the bill to the Senate floor in June, setting it up to be blocked by Republicans with a filibuster.
Democrats aiming to combat hundreds of state-level election integrity legislation from Republicans, such as bills that would restrict absentee voting and require voter ID, see Manchin’s opposition to the For the People Act as a betrayal.
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib accused Manchin of “the one being partisan” by refusing to support the bill, noting the Republican efforts and claiming that Republican legislation in Texas “banned ‘souls to the polls’” get-out-the-vote efforts regularly led by black churches. Texas Republicans have since said that the bill’s provision to change early voting hours to start at 1 p.m. on Sundays was a typo and should have said 11 a.m.
A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin on Illinois, Jenna Valle-Riestra, quipped in a since-deleted tweet: “All I’m saying is I don’t think our founding fathers anticipated the survival of this democratic experiment to rest in the hands of a man who lives in a house boat.”
Manchin resides on his boat, the Almost Heaven, while he is in Washington, D.C.
“Joe Manchin has become the new Mitch McConnell,” New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman said on CNN Monday. “Joe Manchin is doing everything in his power to stop democracy and to stop our work for the people, the work that the people sent us here to do.”
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Other Democrats heaped less-personal criticism on Manchin.
“The reason this bill has no Republican support is because it gets in the way of Republican plans to undermine elections,” Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar said in a tweet on Monday, along with a link to Manchin’s op-ed.
