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State officials and community leaders discussed ways to mobilize Black and brown communities against Republican efforts to restrict ballot access in a Evanston/North Shore NAACP forum Tuesday.
“Our nation is facing the most coordinated deliberate effort to suppress voters of color since the days of Jim Crow,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said at the virtual forum. After Donald Trump made claims around voter fraud following the 2020 election, Republican legislators in more than 40 states have introduced bills that would restrict voting access.
Durbin began the forum by discussing two House bills that would expand voting rights the John Lewis Votings Rights Act and the newly proposed For The People Act.
Sen. Chuck Schumer Talks Police Reform, Voting Rights And Black-Owned Businesses
After his first 100 days as Senate Majority Leader, the top Democrat faces hostile Republicans seeking to derail the president’s agenda.
Published 2 hours ago
Written by Nigel Roberts
As President Biden marked his 100th day in office last week, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, also marked his 100th day as Senate Majority Leader. In that role, he’stasked with navigating the president’s agenda through an evenly divided chamber.
Unlike the Democratic-led House of Representatives, which can pass bills by a simple majority vote, Senate rules require 60 votes to pass major legislation. That means Democrats must stick together and win over at least 10 Republicans.
For the uninitiated, Manchin isn t some far right wing Republican like Louisiana Senator John Kennedy who hides behind a southern drawl and pretends he s just a regular guy who doesn t have a law degree (he does) and didn t attend Oxford (he did.)
No, Manchin has a bachelors in business from West Virginia University, and spent most of his adult life in politics. A decade as a state senator, four years as West Virginia Secretary of State, nearly six years as governor, and now more than 10 years as a U.S. Senator.
Casual observers might think he s a dyed in the wool Democrat, but Manchin ranks number 54 on the GovTrack list of U.S. Senators, with number one being the most conservative (Marsha Blackburn) and number 100 being the most liberal (Bernie Sanders).
President Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress, with Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on the dais behind him on April 28, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Melina Mara-Pool/Getty Images)
President Joe Biden’s first formal address to a joint session of Congress is in the history books, and it suddenly seems a lifetime ago that his predecessor was refusing to shake Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hand at the State of the Union or that a president speaking from that revered podium had been scripted by Stephen Miller.
While the wounds of the past four years are far from healed, the tone and theatrics of this joint session were a clear sign that times have changed.