Sewell’s new voting rights push
Ahead of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the Alabama Democrat reintroduces a longshot bill to restore key protections as GOP resists.
House Democrats reintroduced a long-shot measure this morning aimed at restoring and strengthening a 60-year-old law that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.
Allow me to explain: The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, named after the late congressman and civil rights icon, has the backing of the top three House Democratic leaders, chairs of the Black, Hispanic, and Asian Pacific American caucuses, and every rank-and-file Democrat.
But congressional Republicans, particularly under former President Donald Trump—who continues to claim the 2020 election was stolen falsely—view expanded voter access as a threat to their push for so-called “election integrity.”
In her own words: Since the start of this Congress, House Democrats have argued that three Republican defections could allow them to block the most extreme elements of the MAGA agenda and pass bipartisan priorities.
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), the bill’s lead sponsor, told me this morning that she views the VRAA similarly.
“Obviously, the slim majority that exists in the House for House Republicans does mean that if we can [peel off] three Republicans to join us in this effort… to fight for protections of voting rights,” she said.
What else they’re saying: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) framed voting rights as central to American democracy.
“This whole notion, the idea, the experiment of self-government relates directly to the ability of all Americans to have the unfettered right to vote,” he said. “But voting rights [are] under attack across America. Republicans, in many ways, have decided that voter suppression is an electoral strategy.”
House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) underscored the struggle to secure voting rights.
“The right to vote wasn’t handed out. It wasn’t freely granted,” she said. “People rose up and claimed it—from Selma to Seneca Falls.”
House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) argued that the bill is about fairness.
“If you have a stake in your community’s future, you should be able to vote for it,” he said. “The same Republicans in Congress who oppose this legislation are the ones who only accept the election outcome when they win. That is a fundamentally un-American view.”
In the know: House Democrats’ bill would reinstate federal oversight of voting laws in jurisdictions with histories of discrimination—updating the formula the Supreme Court struck down in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013.
It would also require states to publicly disclose changes to voting laws and policies to enhance transparency.
The bill previously passed the House in 2021 but fell short of the 60-vote threshold in the Senate due to a Republican filibuster.
Former President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris endorsed a filibuster carveout for voting rights at the time, but then-Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.) opposed changing Senate rules.
How we got here: The Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby ruling dismantled key protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ending federal preclearance requirements that prevented states with histories of racial discrimination from enacting new voting restrictions.
The Court ruled that the decades-old formula determining which states required oversight was outdated.
In the aftermath, many Southern states imposed new voting restrictions, fueling concerns about voter suppression.
Not so fast: Republicans argue the VRAA represents federal overreach into state election laws.
They are instead pushing the SAVE Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, impose stricter voter ID requirements, and give states broader power to remove noncitizens from voter rolls.
While there is no documented evidence of widespread noncitizen voting, Republicans insist the measure is necessary to restore confidence in elections.
Democrats counter that these restrictions disproportionately burden minority voters and that GOP concerns are rooted in Trump’s false claims about election fraud in 2020.
Looking ahead: Sewell reintroduced the bill ahead of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday—March 7, 1965—when civil rights activists, including a 25-year-old John Lewis, were brutally beaten while marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama.
The Faith & Politics Institute, founded by Lewis, is leading a congressional delegation to Selma, Birmingham, and Montgomery. The 300-person group includes 40 members of Congress and several senators.
On Sunday, the delegation will join thousands of marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in a commemorative event organized by Jubilee, a Selma-based group that has led the event for years.
Sewell told me she looks forward to welcoming Jeffries, Aguilar, and other congressional leaders to mark the occasion.
Jeffries told reporters that if Democrats retake the House in 2026, restoring the Voting Rights Act would be a top legislative priority. But for now, the bill remains a symbolic statement in a Republican-controlled chamber.
From the archives: “‘Old battles have become new again’: Bloody Sunday brings current battlegrounds into focus”