Dems to focus on voting rights before primaries
WASHINGTON — Democrats are trying to turn their most painful losses this year into a rallying cry they hope will electrify the 2020 presidential campaign: Every vote matters.
Multiple potential contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination are elevating the issue of voting rights as they prepare to launch campaigns. They’re vowing to oppose Republican-backed efforts to require identification to vote, reinstate protections eliminated by a 2013 Supreme Court ruling and frequently highlight the necessity of counting every vote.
The aim is to tap into the anger and frustration among Democrats who argue that Republicans win some elections by making it harder for their constituents, particularly minorities, to vote.
That sentiment has long existed among Democrats but intensified after the party lost closely watched races for governor in Georgia and Florida last month. Both contests featured heated racial rhetoric and charges of voter suppression. The party’s suspicion of Republicans has also grown as a congressional race in North Carolina remains mired in allegations of absentee ballot fraud and GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin and Michigan seek to weaken the power of incoming Democratic governors.
Democrats ultimately hope to turn the issue of voting rights into an argument that’s just as persuasive to voters in 2020 as health care proved to be in 2018. And there’s already competition among potential presidential contenders to build a reputation as the most aggressive in advocating for the right to vote.
“This is not a new issue, and it is quite frankly the dark history of our country, which is specific populations being restricted from meaningful access to the right to vote,” said California Sen. Kamala Harris.
Aides to Harris said that voting rights would be among her top priorities, and that she likely would frame it less as a civil rights issue and as more of a broader Democratic rallying point. She has argued that the entire Democratic agenda is weakened when Republicans restrict ballot access for unions, minorities and other groups.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who is weighing his own presidential bid, has framed the issue of voting rights in the context of a traditional civil rights issue.
Harris, Booker and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota are among the potential presidential candidates who will hold onto seats on the Senate Judiciary Committee heading into 2020, giving them an important post from which to address voting rights.