Hunger Strike For Voting Rights Comes to D.C. – Will Sen. Sinema Turn A Blind Eye?

Update to Sen. Sinema Is Gaslighting Arizona Students On Hunger Strike To Pass Voting Rights Legislation – She Remains Steadfast In Her Support For Senate Filibuster Rule.

The Washington Post reports, Voting rights advocates hold hunger strike near White House:

They tried to do this any other way.

For months, they listened to Democrats talk about passing voting rights legislation over Republican objections. They wrote emails, canvassed and called lawmakers, urging them to protect the country’s democracy. They saw other liberal protesters marching in the nation’s capital all summer, getting arrested to bring attention to their fight.

None of it, they said, seemed to be enough.

So last week in Phoenix, a group of 20 college students and recent graduates stopped eating.

In starving themselves, they hoped politicians at the U.S. Capitol and White House would finally act with the urgency they say this crisis of democracy demands.

“We’d rather suffer through this hunger strike than to suffer the consequences of this bill not being passed,” said Brandon Ortega, a third-year student at Arizona State University who has not eaten since the hunger strike began Dec. 6. “We’re really committed to hold out as long as we can.”

The group planned to stay outside the state Capitol in Phoenix, and focus their pressure on Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to support passing the Freedom to Vote Act, a federal voting rights bill. But to their surprise, Sinema spoke with them on Day Four. They left that meeting thinking their message needed to be elevated.

On Day Five — Friday — they flew to Washington, where new hunger strikers who heard about their protest joined them outside the White House. The group is demanding that Democrats pass federal voting rights legislation before next year, amid concern over the 2022 midterm elections.

But by Day Nine — Tuesday — their bodies seemed to be shutting down.

Too weak to walk long distances, they used wheelchairs to get to their protest spot at Lafayette Square. One hunger striker said it felt like knives were poking at her stomach. Another said she had lost more than 10 pounds. Others had to stop fasting on the advice of a doctor who checks their vital signs twice a day.

But those who were able to continue kept showing up, encouraging each other to drink water, rest and finish college assignments.

“I think my body’s just kind of like giving up on me a little bit,” said Emma Shockley, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s kind of sad that we have to do what we’re doing, but … we’re willing to do whatever it takes.”

The students are part of un-PAC, which describes itself as a nonpartisan advocacy group launched in March that employs student organizers and whose first campaign has been to pressure legislators to pass federal democracy reform legislation.

As they struggled through Day Nine, the activists received a boost from some Texas state legislators they admire: Reps. Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio), Gina Hinojosa (D-Austin) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas), who is running for Congress.

“Don’t think people are not paying attention because they are. Don’t think for a minute that you’re not making an impact because you are,” Martinez Fischer told the demonstrators.

He was among the Texas Democrats who broke quorum in May to block the passage of a restrictive voting bill. That group flew to Washington to turn up pressure on President Biden and Congress to pass federal voting rights protections to override the restrictions that Republicans in Texas and other states were trying to pass.

“When the history book is written on Freedom to Vote, and on the John Lewis Advancement Act, President Biden is signing those proposals into law, we’re all going to have a chapter in that story,” he said, “and yours is happening right now.”

Kyla Frank, 23, nodded as she listened, her hands clasped atop a pink journal detailing the hunger strike. As she flipped through the pages, she pointed outnotes of solidarity from speakers who encouraged the group throughout the hunger strike.

Frank has participated in the hunger strike since Day One and has been drinking about 5 liters of regular water and three bottles of electrolyte-enhanced water per day. By Day Three, she felt like she was “hit by a train.” She has lost 13 pounds.

She said she is motivated to stand up for voting rights after watching her mother work so hard to care for her and her siblings.

“A lot of the struggles that she faced are a direct result of corruption in our politics that prevents our government from protecting people who are most vulnerable,” said Frank, a graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in the District and Virginia State University.

In the last presidential election, she voted for Biden, hoping that he would fix a system she viewed as broken.

“He promised a lot of things,” Frank said. “If any of those promises are going to be seen this year, next year, we need to prioritize voting rights so people can have a pathway to getting those issues across the finish line.”

These voting rights activists are willing to put their lives on the line for voting rights, as did the Civil Rights Movement 60 years ago. What is Sen. Sinema willing to do to secure voting rights?

President Biden spoke privately with Democratic senators about voting rights on Thursday and later called for quick progress. Biden speaks with senators on voting rights as Democrats move to prioritize legislation on the issue:

The conversation, which participants said did not produce any breakthroughs, came a day after Biden said there is “nothing domestically more important than voting rights.” The path to passing a bill to protect the right to vote faces significant obstacles in an evenly divided Senate.

Biden will be the keynote speaker at South Carolina State University’s fall commencement Friday. He said this week that he plans to raise the issue in his remarks.

The group of senators, including both liberals and moderates, spoke with Biden on a video call. Five of the participants — Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Angus King (I-Maine), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) — confirmed the call and said the president’s message was clear: Get it done, and quickly.

But only one of the two key Democratic senators who will need to be persuaded for there to be any movement on voting rights, Sen. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), was on the call, according to the other participants. The other senator, Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), was not, participants said. [What, she had a “bipartisan spin class” to lead, or she was training for another 10k run – more important things to her than saving American democracy?] Biden in a later statement described the conversation as “productive.” [That word is devoid of all meaning].

And Biden, the senators said, did not set out a firm timeline for action, and they did not echo demands from some Democrats and advocacy groups that the bills must pass before senators depart Washington for the holidays. [God forbid senators would be asked to work through their Christmas break. Elitist bullshit. Tell that to all the frontline workers working through Christmas.]

Tester said that “it would be great to get a commitment before people leave town . . . to move forward so we can get these bills,” while Warnock said he would “like to see us having a path to getting this done” before the recess begins, including setting out any necessary rule changes to skirt a GOP filibuster.

Civil rights leaders and Democratic activists have raised growing concerns with Republican-led efforts in some states to tighten voting laws, and they say they are losing patience with the lack of movement in Washington. Continued false claims by former president Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 election was stolen have also angered Democrats.

The issue has grabbed the attention of a large group of powerful Democrats in Washington. Vice President Harris, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (Ore.) also were on Thursday’s call, according to a senior Democratic Senate aide.

“The senators provided an update on their [lack of] progress. And the president and the vice president reaffirmed the importance of acting to ensure that every American can vote and have that vote be counted,” said White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Biden’s conversation with the senators focused on voting rights specifically, according to a senior administration official with knowledge of the talks. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.

Momentum has been building for voting rights action in the Senate at the same time it has become clear that Senate Democrats will not be able to pass the social spending bill containing many of Biden’s priorities before the end of the year [because of megalomaniac “President Manchin.” See, Power of one: Manchin is singularly halting Biden’s agenda.]

Biden released a statement Thursday on the status of the negotiations on the Build Back Better bill, acknowledging a slog remains head. “At the same time, we must also press forward on voting rights legislation,” Biden said.

* * *

Biden’s challenge lies primarily in Manchin and Sinema, who have voiced skepticism or opposition to changing Senate procedures in a way that would be needed to push voting rights priorities across the finish line.

With Republicans unified against Democrats’ plans, the only way to pass legislation is to alter Senate rules requiring a 60-vote threshold. That would mean all 50 Democrats uniting in favor of both a rule change and underlying legislation.

While Manchin and Sinema appear intractable on the Senate’s 60-vote margin, other Democrats have been increasingly willing to entertain changes. The latest Democrat to back an exception for voting right legislation is Sen. Maggie Hassan (N.H.), who had not endorsed softening the filibuster margin until Thursday night. Due to “systematic undermining of our elections and our democracy,” she said in a floor speech, voting bills ought to be passed on a simple majority vote.

“I believe the time has come to change the Senate rules to allow a straight up-or-down majority vote on this fundamental issue of democracy,” said Hassan, who is facing reelection next year in one of the nation’s most competitive Senate races. “Our democracy is too important to allow a minority of this body to let it slip away.”

Hassan was among 33 members of the Democratic caucus who signed a 2017 letter defending the filibuster under then-president Donald Trump when Republicans controlled both the House and Senate.
More than half of those Democrats have now changed their views.

The Biden administration on Thursday stressed the executive actions Biden has taken to combat GOP attempts to chip away at voting rights. But many activists say more needs to be done.

Multiple senators said they left their conversations with the impression that Biden would become more personally engaged in the battle to pass the voting rights bills in the coming days and weeks.

“I expect him to stay more vocal, more engaged until we get it done,” Padilla said.

“I was very encouraged by the conversation we had today. I feel like we’re on a path to getting it done,” Warnock said.