Lone Star State lawmakers put Texas-sized pressure on Washington Democrats over voting rights
CNN
Nearly two dozen Democratic members of the Texas state Legislature are taking their voting rights fight from Austin to Washington this week.
The trip is a "Hail Mary" effort of sorts, to apply some Texas-sized pressure on US lawmakers to support the passage of the For the People's Act, a comprehensive federal voting rights bill that would counteract many of the voting restrictions put in place by Republicans at the state level. The cross-country blitz comes just weeks after Texas Democrats, in dramatic fashion, notched a rare victory in killing the Republican-controlled Legislature's flagship election overhaul bill, Senate Bill 7, by walking off the state House floor as the clocked ticked down on the 2020 session. The move left the Republican majority without the quorum they needed to approve the bill this session in the final hours before a midnight deadline. The state's Republican governor, who claimed the bill improved election security, has vowed to call a special session to bring the contents of SB7 back for a vote later this year, sparking a renewed effort by Texas Democrats to push for federal intervention.President Joe Biden on Sunday delivers his first commencement address of the 2024 season at Morehouse College, where the president may for the first time in months have to confront the angst that’s been percolating on college campuses nationwide toward his administration’s policies on the Israel-Hamas war.
Arab and Palestinian Americans left a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday night frustrated they did not have a clear understanding of how the Biden administration might act upon their concerns as the Israel-Hamas war devastates the civilian population in Gaza, participants told CNN.