John,
Midland. Lubbock. Abilene. Wichita Falls. Gainesville. Denton. South Dallas. Waxahachie.
Over the past week, I’ve traveled to each of these communities as part of a statewide drive for democracy, our effort to bring a conversation about voting rights to every part of Texas. At each stop, I’ve listened to and talked with people about how we can protect our increasingly fragile democracy and make national voting rights the number one priority for the president and our representatives in D.C.
Over the next two weeks, I’ll travel to twenty more Texas towns and cities to continue these conversations.
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Each of these events has benefited from the engagement of no fewer than 100 people. In Denton, over 850 took part in the conversation. In Waxahachie—on a soupy, humid morning—150 joined us at Getzendaner park.
The folks who have come out to join in on this fight have helped me understand where the power in this country lies. It lies with the people.
Last week, the great voting rights leader Stacey Abrams told me a story that illustrated the power of the people:
In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Andrew Young visited President Lyndon Johnson to urge him to take action on voting rights. Johnson told them that he’d like to help, but that he didn’t have the power to get it done. Congress would never pass broad voting rights legislation.
As they left the meeting, Dr. King turned to Ambassador Young and said, “I think we’ve got to figure out a way to get this president some power.”
Over the next year, Americans who believed in civil rights and voting rights took to the streets, wrote to their newspapers, called the White House and their members of Congress, and pushed the national government to move on voting rights.
And on March 7th, 1965, a 24-year old John Lewis led the famous march from Selma to Montgomery. He was beaten within an inch of his life as he tried to cross the Edmund Pettis bridge, but his courageous effort pushed the president into action. Eight days later, President Johnson convened a joint session of Congress to urge them to pass the 1965 Voting Rights Act. During that joint session, he told legislators:
“There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in what is happening here tonight...
In our time we have come to live with moments of great crisis. Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues; issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression. But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved Nation...
This bill will strike down restrictions to voting in all elections—Federal, State, and local—which have been used to deny Negroes the right to vote...
This bill will establish a simple, uniform standard which cannot be used, however ingenious the effort, to flout our Constitution...
Because all Americans just must have the right to vote. And we are going to give them that right.”
The people of this country found President Johnson the power he needed to be the leader our country deserved. He and Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, and America began its path as a truly multiracial democracy.
That is what’s under attack in Texas, in Georgia, and across this country. It comes in the form of elections bills that will make it harder for tens of millions of Americans to vote; it comes in the form of an insurrection that killed five people in our nation’s Capitol on January 6th; it comes in the form of a Big Lie that is trafficked by a party that defends sedition instead of democracy.
And that’s why we’re bringing people across Texas together. To listen to one another, to commit ourselves to this fight, and to give our national government—especially President Biden and the Democrats in the U.S. Senate—the power they need to pass voting rights legislation and save this democracy before it’s too late.
Thank you,
Beto O'Rourke
