House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D- S.C) says the country is on the edge of losing democracy and it motivates him to fight to pass voting rights.
“I’m worried about losing the House. I’m worried about losing this democracy. That’s why I’m fighting as hard as I can for this voting rights bill, because we are teetering on the edge of losing this democracy,” Clyburn said in an interview to be aired on Sunday, according to The Hill. “Look, when they passed those laws back in 1895, these new constitutions that they put in place all over the South, we lost our democracy throughout South Carolina and other Southern states. I don’t want to see that happen again, and that’s what we are teetering on doing.”
The House passed a voting rights bill that combines the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Amendment Act on Thursday.
The bill appears to be dead in the Senate amid a united Republican opposition and two Senate Democrats signaling publicly that they do not support changing filibuster rules to pass the bill.
The bill might be Congress’ last chance to combat restrictive voting laws passed by Republican-controlled legislatures across the country.
The Senate is set to take up the legislation on Tuesday.
