House Democrats’ Best Response to Trump’s Racism? Fighting for Voting Rights.

Beltway politics was roiled this week by President Trump’s decision to insert himself and his racist tweets into an intra-Democratic Party fight between the House leadership and four freshman women of color known as the Squad.

Democrats of every ideological stripe have united in condemning Trump’s gutter racism, a strong message that resonates even louder compared to the Republicans’ cowering and condonement of an attack on their institutional colleagues.

While party unity in opposition to the racist-in-chief currently occupying the White House and the passage of a House resolution condemning his remarks are heartening, House Democrats have an opportunity right now to unite to advance a far more compelling and substantive response to it: by using their collective power in the majority to defend our democracy and protect voting rights.

It has become almost unimaginable to expect any substantive legislative progress given the relentless obstruction of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who refuses to even bring to the floor a bill to protect American elections from foreign meddling and hacking.

However, House Democrats will have enormous leverage in upcoming “must-pass” bills on government spending and the debt ceiling. These pieces of legislation give them an opportunity to assert their power to defend our democracy from onslaught on many fronts. And the time to act is now; Republicans’ refusal to even consider bills to defend our elections from foreign attack and restore the basic protections of the Voting Rights Act make defending the “full faith and credit” in American democracy an absolute imperative before the 2020 election.

With the presidential election now less than a year and a half away, House Democrats absolutely must make securing our democracy and restoring voting rights a top priority. Here’s how they can act.

Pass H.R. 1’s most critical provisions.

House Democrats made voting rights the centerpiece of their new majority by introducing H.R. 1, and it’s time they use the power of their budget fights to implement some of its most critical provisions. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Shelby v. Holder decision written by Chief Justice Roberts six years ago gutted the enforcement mechanisms of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), and the rights of already marginalized populations have been under assault ever since. House Democrats can now restore the VRA’s protections by reauthorizing its state and local coverage formulas. H.R. 1 also includes a ban on partisan gerrymandering, which is now essential to protecting the principle of “one-person one-vote” following Roberts’ latest ruling to undermine democracy.

Roberts’ horribly flawed opinions each explicitly said Congress could act if lawmakers wished to blunt their impact. House Democrats can now use their critical leverage in the coming weeks and immense power of the purse to restore the Voting Rights Act and end partisan gerrymandering.

Properly fund the 2020 Census.

Although President Trump finally conceded on allowing the census to proceed without a citizenship question, House Democrats must make sure that the entire census has sufficient resources to produce an accurate count. They must also deny funding to further efforts to tamper with census data on citizenship to enable Republican gerrymandering. From congressional representation to funding for critical local programs and resources, the impacts of the census touch every single person in America. Republican hacks have continually attempted to rig the process and systematically undercount millions, particularly communities of color, and Congress has chronically underfunded the census for the past decade. It’s up to Democrats in the House to wield their power as the majority through budget negotiations to ensure that the census is fully funded and ready to obtain an accurate count.

Ensure fair and secure elections.

Despite the clear role that Russian cyberattacks played in the 2016 election — one that even Republicans have acknowledged — Senate Republicans maintain that they see no reason for further action to protect the security and fairness of our nation’s elections ahead of November 2020. This reaction is deeply troubling and demands action from House Democrats. A Brennan Center study from earlier this year found that most states have far to go when it comes to ensuring their elections are secure. Forty-five states, for instance, are using voting equipment that’s no longer manufactured, and 12 are using paperless voting machines in at least some counties. Major steps must be taken to secure our elections ahead of 2020. It’s up to House Democrats to use their power in the budget fight to take real action.

Achieving major gains for voting rights may sound far-fetched, but why? House Democrats easily passed the entirety of H.R. 1 earlier this year, and Republicans now need their votes to avoid another government shutdown or a far worse financial meltdown under Donald Trump’s watch.

What could be a better response to Trump’s racist attempts to divide Democrats and the country than to present a unified front in defense of democracy and voting rights?

House Democrats have the power to stand up to protect our elections, defend the census from further tampering and pass key provisions of H.R. 1 to restore the VRA and end gerrymandering. As a former House Democratic leader once said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”