On the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act becoming law, DNC Chair Ken Martin issued the following statement:

“Today, as we reflect on the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, we renew our commitment to protecting and expanding the right to vote. The fight for voting rights is not a finished chapter but a living struggle — and this couldn’t be more apparent than in the attacks Donald Trump and Governor Greg Abbott are waging on millions of Texas voters.

“Republicans have a long and shameful history of attacking Americans’ voting rights — and Trump has renewed this fight by commanding Texas Republicans to rig the system, break the rules, and cling to power.

“Throughout his presidency, he has held the door wide open for Republican-led states to purge voter rolls, shutter polling places, and pass laws designed to keep communities of color from voting. Trump hasn’t just sat idly by — he has fueled the fire. He spread dangerous lies about our elections, tried to pressure officials into overturning results, and incited a violent insurrection against our government when voters rejected him. 

“Democrats are united in upholding democracy and protecting every American’s fundamental right to vote. The Democratic Party will always meet any threat to Americans’ voting rights with an aggressive fight — we’ll never back down while Republicans threaten constitutional rights for political gain.”

REMINDER: Texas was previously sued for drawing a gerrymandered map that diluted the voting power of Black and Hispanic voters.

Texas Tribune: “The U.S. Department of Justice is throwing its weight into the legal fight over Texas’ newly drawn maps for Congress and the state House, filing a lawsuit Monday that claims Texas lawmakers discriminated against voters of color by denying Latino and Black voters equal opportunities to participate in the voting process and elect their preferred candidates.

“The Biden administration filed its lawsuit in federal court in Texas, joining what’s expected to be a protracted fight over the political boundaries the state will use for elections to come. It joins a collection of individual voters and organizations representing voters of color that have already sued the state over maps that help solidify the GOP’s dominance while weakening the influence of voters of color.”

FiveThirtyEight: “Finally, Texas’s new map doesn’t just have a partisan bias. It may be a racial gerrymander as well. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, Texas’s population increased by a whopping 4 million people; 95 percent of the state’s net growth was due to people of color, and almost 50 percent was due to Latinos. But even though that population growth earned Texas two additional seats in Congress, the number of majority-Hispanic districts stayed the same. And although there are now almost as many Hispanic Texans as non-Hispanic white Texans, there are more than twice as many majority-white districts as majority-Hispanic districts.”

Republican-controlled states have repeatedly drawn maps that courts found violate the Voting Rights Act.

May 2025: “A panel of three federal judges says the Alabama Legislature intentionally drew its congressional district map to dilute Black voting strength, which is unconstitutional and violates the Voting Rights Act.”

July 2024: “A federal three-judge panel on Tuesday struck down Mississippi’s Republican-drawn legislative maps, finding that certain districts discriminate against Black voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).”

October 2023: “A federal court today ruled that Georgia’s state legislative district maps discriminate against Black voters and must be redrawn.”

Republicans are hellbent on gutting and attacking the Voting Rights Act. 

Democracy Docket: “Last week, the Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit challenging Georgia’s absentee ballot application deadline arguing that the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional.   Republicans are trying to get involved in a new lawsuit brought by the International Alliance of Theater Stage Employees Local 927 against members of the Georgia State Election Board and members of the Fulton County Registration and Elections Board challenging Georgia’s absentee ballot application deadline for presidential elections…. Now, Republicans are arguing that the Voting Rights Act is not constitutional. ‘And under current precedent, the seven-day deadline does not pass constitutional muster. Neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor the Electors Clause nor any other constitutional provision gives Congress authority to enact the national seven-day application deadline. The federal law is unconstitutional, ‘ the motion to intervene reads.”

NPR: “Democrats say the bill, known as H.R. 4, would strengthen the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which had been weakened by a pair of Supreme Court rulings over the course of the last decade. Its supporters say that would make it more difficult for states to restrict future voting access.  While the bill passed the House along party lines, with 219 Democrats in favor and all 212 Republicans opposed, it now faces steep GOP opposition in the evenly divided Senate.”