Months-long talks among Democrats in Congress about how to pass voting rights legislation over Republican objections are getting more serious — and more urgent.
“We had better come up with some way to get around it,” Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House majority whip, recently warned his Democratic colleagues in the Senate, “because this democracy is teetering on collapse.”
Democrats want to pass the bill before the end of the year, when it might be too late to make changes to how elections in key states are run for the 2022 midterm elections.
The biggest (but not only) Democratic opponent to weakening the filibuster is Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.). Punchbowl News reports that on Tuesday he’s meeting with a group of moderate Democratic senators to gauge his openness to tweaking it so Democrats can pass a voting-rights bill they’ve all coalesced around. If Manchin is onboard, the Senate’s centuries-old procedure for blocking legislation could be eroded.