Despite recent setbacks with the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, Vice President Kamala Harris promises to push ahead anyway.
She shared remarks in Selma, Ala. on Sunday, Mar. 6, commemorating the 57th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” the three protest marches that took place on Mar. 7 – 25, 1965.
“In a moment of great uncertainty, those marchers pressed forward and they crossed,” Harris said on remarking on those who crossed Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and were beaten and tear gassed.
“We must do the same. We must lock our arms and march forward,” she added. “We will not let setbacks stop us.”
The push for passing the federal voting rights legislation can honor the legacy of those who marched, according to VP Harris, and would “lift up state legislatures that have passed pro-voter laws and that we keep fighting to prevent the passage of the anti-voter laws.”
“It demands we keep going to court to defend this sacred freedom, and it demands we register voters, volunteer as election workers and yes, of course, drive souls to the polls,” the vice president added.
Harris was joined in the large crowd by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and others who walked across the historic bridge.
Last Tuesday, during President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address of 2022, he spoke of voting rights and called upon Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, both of which have faced Republican opposition in the Senate, which requires 60 votes.
Democrats were also unable to unify their 50 senators around removing the Senate filibuster to allow them to move forward alone on voting rights legislation, with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) voting down the reform proposal.