Greetings friend,

Voting rights are sacred and personal to me. My great-grandfather had to take a literacy test and find three white men to vouch for him just to be able to vote. My grandfather and father had to pay poll taxes. My great-grandmothers and grandmothers never voted, and my mother didn't vote until after the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

It's been eleven years since the Supreme Court issued its Shelby County v. Holder decision gutting the Voting Rights Act. I'm fighting to fix that.

To commemorate the 59th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, I held a roundtable with community leaders and voting rights advocates to discuss efforts to restore the power of the Voting Rights Act and preserve access to the ballot box. As a member of the Task Force on Strengthening Democracy, I will continue working to advance the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.

Do you think Congress should do more to protect voting rights nationwide?