This Texas Democrat Doesn’t Want Proud Boys Standing Over His Grandmother as She Votes – The Nation

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer meets with Texas House Democrats at the U.S. Capitol. More than 60 Texas House Democrats left the state overnight for Washington, D.C., in order to block a voting restrictions bill. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

Thank you for signing up forThe Nations weekly newsletter.

Democratic Texas Representative James Talarico didnt come to Washington, D.C., to embarrass Foxs Pete Hegsuth, but thats what he did last week. The youngest member of the Texas delegation, now 32, Talarico violated a lot of Democrats precepts, including my own (Im a Never Foxer), to mix it up with the lightweight Trump-backing Fox prime-time host. He took him down.

You have made a lot of money personally and youve enriched a lot of corporations with advertising by getting on here and spewing lies and conspiracy theories to folks who trust you, Talarico told Hegseth. He challenged him: Tell your voters right now that Donald Trump lost the election. Hegseth sputtered; Talarico went viral.

Since then, hes been on MSNBC with Joy Reid and Jonathan Capehart and joined CNNs Jim Acosta; Im sure Im missing someone. Monday night the whole Texas delegation is doing an MSNBC voting rights town hall. Meanwhile, hes been meeting with congressional leaders and voting rights icons to try to push congressional Democrats to work harder to pass a voting rights bill that will make the rollback planned by the Texas GOP impossible.

Its hard work, whether in his diverse House District 52, the Austin Capitol, or Washington, D.C., where Democrats nominally run all three branches but President Joe Manchinoops, I mean West Virginia Senator Joe Manchinseems to have the last word on whats possible. In an interview, Talarico confirmed that Senate leaders told the Texas Democrats that the two pending infrastructure bills are their priority, but said their D.C. visit had raised the pressure to make sure some kind of voting rights legislation passes before the Senate goes into recess on August 6.

I appreciate Talaricos optimism, but retain my pessimism that any kind of voting rights legislation can follow closely on the heels of whatever infrastructure bill passesif any. If Talarico and Co. succeed in staying out of Texas through the special session, Governor Greg Abbott is promising to call another one ASAP. This is an uphill climb.

But I dont know uphill as intimately as Texas Democrats do. So if Talaricos at least somewhat optimistic, Im going to try to get there, too.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Current Issue

Subscribe today and Save up to $129.

Can you help our readers understand which aspects of the Texas bill will hit your constituents particularly hard?

Thats a tough question, because there are so many harmful provisions. One is the reduction of early voting hours. My district has a lot of working folks who cant take off in the middle of the day to go vote so they need extended hours. I have a lot of senior citizens in my district, and this bill will make the provision of mail-in ballots harder. I have a lot of my own family members in my district, this is where I was born and raised, and this bill would empower partisan poll watchers like the Proud Boys to stand over my grandmothers shoulder while she is trying to cast her ballot. Thats why this is not only political, but its very personal.

Were Democrats able to add amendments to soften the impact?

Well, the discussion is a little confusing because there have been different versions of this bill. As you know, we are in special session right now; we had regular session in the spring. The same basic voter suppression bill has had many forms. In the regular session, the Texas House Democrats watered down the bill to some extent, though it was still very harmful. But in the Senate, led by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, his version was even more extreme: It eliminated Souls to the Polls, where mostly African American congregants go vote after church on Sundaythen it shortened the hours, and pushed them back to 1 pm, which is after people usually go vote. It also had a frightening provision that would have made it easier to overturn electionsand that was the bill we were able to defeat in the regular session with the walkout.

Readers like you make our independent journalism possible.

Now the bill is somewhere in between the watered-down version and that real extreme version, but it still has so many classic voter suppression methods. If you dig into the meat of this bill as I have, some of the hidden provisions make it really hard for voters who dont speak English to access an assistor. I used to teach in San Antonio, and a lot of times our parents would have their children go with them to vote, so they could read them the ballot or help explain

You dont have ballots in Spanish in Texas?

No, we do, but sometimes voters either cant read or need a little more help. Youd bring your son or your daughter, or another assistor, to help you through the process. Weve historically done that in Texas with no problem.

I know your delegation has been splitting up to meet with individual senators, although you all met with Vice President Kamala Harris. Whove you gotten to meet with?

Yes, I was in the meeting with the vice president. I was also in the meeting with Senator Elizabeth Warren. Others have met with Senators Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, majority leader Schumer, and of course Senator Manchin.

Has any member of your delegation met with President Biden yet?

Not yet. We have requested that meeting, and I hope well be able to meet with the president in some way while were here. But we have not gotten word thats been scheduled.

You didnt get to meet with Senator Manchin personally

No, that was mostly our leadership and senior members of our delegationand as you know Im the baby of the bunch

Get unlimited access: $9.50 for six months.

They had to keep you out!

Yes! But one of my colleagues, Representative Senfronia Thompson, who is the longest-serving woman and African American in Texas historyshes an iconshe met with Senator Manchin, and she shared how her parents in Houston had to save up money to pay the poll tax. An incredibly powerful story, to hear how previous generations struggled so mightily to access the franchise.

Yet he still says he wont support a so-called carve-out of the 60-vote rule to pass a voting rights bill. What do you think is going on therewhat did you hear from your colleagues?

Our colleagues walked away from the meeting feeling optimistic about what would be possible with Senator Manchin. Hes obviously a big supporter of voting rights. H was a secretary of state and he wants to be a leader on the issue, which is a great place to start fromwe cant say that for every senator, especially not on the Republican side of the aisle. Hes also, obviously, been very committed to the filibuster, which I disagree with. Its a Jim Crow relic that needs to be done away with if were going to let our democracy function. But it seems that there may be an opportunity to pass some core voting rights provisionssomething like the John Lewis Voting Rights Actwhich Senator Manchin believes could get significant Republican support. Now, whether or not thats true is something thats above my pay grade. But we in Texas are desperate for anything that could prevent this bill from becoming law in Texas.

Manchin did float a compromise voting rights proposal that was pretty good, even endorsed by Stacey Abrams, which McConnell trashed as the Stacey Abrams compromise, and you know what that means. But infrastructure seems like everybodys priority right now. What are you hearing?

What we were told at the meetingsthe Senator Manchin meeting and the Senator Schumer meetingis that they want to get past infrastructure before they go to voting rights. But they also said our presence here has put a lot of pressure on them to get to voting rights as quickly as possible. Which was our goal. We also wanted to galvanize the national media to be talking about voting rights and to be putting that pressure on leaders of Congress and on the president and the vice president. Im not a senator, but from what Ive been told, the Senate needs pressure and the Senate needs a deadline. And thankfully we have both of those things now because the Senates August recess is coming up, August 6 I believe, which is also when our special session ends in Texas.

The last thing Ill mention is that week is also the anniversary of another Texan, President Lyndon Baines Johnson, signing the Voting Rights Act

Also on August 6.

Seems like the universe is trying to tell us something about what needs to happen at the beginning of August

Lets hope we listen.

Read the original:

This Texas Democrat Doesn't Want Proud Boys Standing Over His Grandmother as She Votes - The Nation