White House Pushes Voting Rights Amid Pressure From Civil Rights Groups

Civil rights leaders took their complaints directly to the President Joe Biden Thursday as his administration unveiled new efforts to help protect voting rights amid complaints that the White House has not done enough to fight attempts by several Republican-led state legislatures to restrict access to the ballot.

Biden met with a group of eight civil rights leaders in the West Wing, while Vice President Kamala Harris announced $25 million in new spending by the Democratic National Committee to support efforts to protect voting access ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

"This is a moment of great gravity," Marc Morial, the President National Urban League told reporters after the meeting. "A great moment of great threat to the essence of American democracy and the right of people to vote.'

Along with Morial, the Reverend Al Sharpton outlined a summer of activism on voting rights, culminating with a march in Washington, DC, on August 28th.

"This will be a summer of activism, a summer of getting back in the streets, a summer of saying to the Senate and the Congress, you may be going home, but it's going to be warmer politically than you think on the ground," Sharpton said.

Sherrilyn Ifill, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund president and director-counsel, said Biden was aware of the issues and urged him to use the bully pulpit of the presidency. "We must have the president use his voice, use his influence, use his power and use what he clearly understands about this moment," she said.

Biden and his team have repeatedly promised a major push on voting rights after Senate Republicans blocked a sweeping election reform bill last month. The president last week told reporters that he planned on “speaking extensively” on voting rights and that he would be “going on the road on this issue.”

So far, a major speech has not happened and a trip has not occurred, leading to rising frustration from those in his own party who view the GOP crackdown on voting rights as an existential threat to both Democrats and democracy.

That pressure has only mounted after a Supreme Court decision limited the ability of minorities to challenge state laws that Democrats say are discriminatory under the Voting Rights Act. Biden has brought in outside advocates for meetings at the White House and has consulted advisers on the best strategy for combating restrictive new laws.

Several states have enacted voting restrictions, and others are debating them, as Republicans have seized on former President Donald Trump’s false claim of massive voter fraud in the 2020 election as a pretense for passing new legislation curtailing ballot access.

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