Senate Republicans made it official on Thursday.
Despite legislative changes suggested by centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Republicans will not support a sweeping election and voting reform bill next week, effectively killing the party’s No. 1 priority.
“The mother of all power grabs is going to fail,” said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he’ll bring up the For the People Act on Tuesday, regardless of the inevitable GOP filibuster it faces.
The bill would overhaul campaign finance laws, ban voter ID requirements, extend early voting days, reform redistricting, and enable ballot harvesting.
Democrats say the bill would counter new voter integrity laws implemented in some states and would make voting more accessible.
The measure has passed the Democratic-led House twice, most recently in March.
Republicans say the bill would federalize elections, increase voter fraud, and tilt the election process in favor of the Democrats.
It’s essentially a political power grab, Senate Republicans said Thursday.
“It’s pretty clear this is an effort to hijack the state election laws for partisan advantage here in Washington, D.C., in the Congress,” said Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican.
Without Republican support, the measure cannot clear a 60-vote threshold needed to begin debate.
Democrats control 50 votes and need at least 10 Republicans to prevent a filibuster.
But Schumer said he’ll call up the bill anyway.
Democrats are hoping to show they support the bill unanimously, which would send a strong message to their base and establish that it could eventually pass if the party votes to get rid of the filibuster, which is supported by many party lawmakers.
On Thursday, they huddled with Manchin, who touted a list of changes he wants to be incorporated in exchange for his support.
Manchin backs requiring voter ID but also allowing alternatives such as utility bills to prove identity at the polls. Manchin also proposed banning partisan gerrymandering of districts and automating the process. Manchin would also make Election Day a holiday and expand early voting to 15 days.
Manchin’s change received a key endorsement Thursday from Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic Georgia election official and a top voting rights activist.
“What Sen. Manchin is putting forward are some basic building blocks that we need to ensure that democracy is accessible, no matter your geography,” Abrams told CNN.
Republicans Thursday rejected Manchin’s version of the bill, scoffing at the ideas of making Election Day a holiday and automating redistricting. They argue his plan federalizes elections and waters down voter integrity by allowing less rigorous voter identification.
Manchin dismissed their criticisms.
“I would hope that there are enough good Republicans who understand the bedrock of our society is having accessible, open, fair, and secure elections,” Manchin said. “We put the country before our politics.”
Republicans say it’s Democrats who are playing politics by providing a false narrative that their election overhaul measure would combat the voter suppression they accuse red states of implementing.
Earlier this year, President Joe Biden called Georgia’s new voter integrity law “Jim Crow in the 21st century.”
During a Wednesday meeting with Texas Democrats, Vice President Kamala Harris said measures in Texas and other states that would tighten voter integrity “are designed, in many cases quite intentionally, to make it difficult for people to vote.”
Republicans said Democrats are using demagoguery to push people to support their election overhaul measure.
“It’s an example of how Democrats are trying to politicize this issue,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican. “The rhetoric that Joe Biden used, the rhetoric that Kamala Harris has used, is disgraceful.”
