| Friend, The extraordinary toll of the wildfires in Los Angeles is coming into focus: at least 29 people dead, 16,000 homes and other buildings destroyed, tens of thousands of lost jobs -- all adding up too some $250 billion in losses.(1) Yet Donald Trump wants to withhold badly needed aid to Southern California unless the state agrees to an unnecessary new Voter ID law that would disenfranchise mostly black and brown people. And U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson just might go along.(2) What does Voter ID have to disaster relief? Not a thing. That’s why we’re fighting back against Trump’s petty act of tyranny.
Let’s be clear: California voting systems are both accessible and secure, and voter fraud is extraordinarily rare.(3) Requiring voters to present an ID would do nothing to secure elections, just deny thousands access to the ballot box on the basis of class and color. Trump sought to deny California relief aid the first time he was president.(4) This is just more of the same: he’s vengeful, petty, and focused only on his own power -- not the thousands of lives upended in our state in the wake of fire. But we’ve seen far too many politicians, on both sides of the aisle, do and say nothing since Trump retook the White House. That’s why we must turn up the heat on U.S. Speaker Mike Johnson and demand he reject this nonsense. Thank you for being with us. –Irene, along with Annie, Angela, Isidra, Cecilia, Jen, and Lindsay (the Courage team)
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