Some of the biggest sports stars to emerge from West Virginia are urging the state’s Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, to back his party’s voting rights legislation.
“We strongly support urgently needed legislation that will protect both the rights of voters and the integrity of outcomes in all federal elections,” read a Thursday letter signed by Jerry West (a former point guard, coach, and general manager who was later inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame and the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame), Nick Saban (a Fairmont, West Virginia, native who is now the head football coach at the University of Alabama), and football players Darryl Talley and Oliver Luck, among others.
“The Freedom to Vote Act, which you sponsored with [Senate Rules and Administration] Committee Chair Senator [Amy] Klobuchar and other colleagues, effectively addressed these goals,” the group added in the letter to Manchin. “Now we also support your leadership in shaping legislation to secure our democracy by protecting election integrity, principled Presidential transitions and our national security during transitions.”
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The Freedom to Vote Act is one of several House-passed pieces of legislation combined into a single bill that Senate Democrats are set to begin consideration of on Tuesday. However, the proposals face virtually unanimous Republican opposition. Manchin supports the legislation, but he opposes changing Senate rules to abolish the filibuster, which effectively requires 60 votes for most proposals. Along with similar opposition to changing filibuster rules from Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Senate Democrats have reached a dead-end trying to push the legislation forward.
Manchin has adamantly opposed getting rid of the filibuster, arguing last week that eliminating the Senate’s 60-vote threshold would be the “easy way out” rather than reaching “the difficult compromises that can stand the test of time and deliver on the promise of a brighter tomorrow for all Americans.”
So far, Democratic colleagues of Manchin and Sinema have had no luck in changing their minds. It’s an open question whether the sports stars will.
“Democracy is best when voting is open to everyone on a level playing field; the referees are neutral; and at the end of the game the final score is respected and accepted,” their letter read.
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The public effort to sway the senator is notable because Saban and West are friends of Manchin and appeared in a campaign ad for his 2018 Senate bid.
