Texas Senator Ted Cruz on Democrats’ voting rights bill: ‘Hell, no’
Ask Sen. Ted Cruz about the Democrats’ voting rights bill, and he makes his position clear: “Hell, no,” and “a shameless power grab.” He voted Tuesday against allowing the Senate to debate the bill.
Sen. John Cornyn called it “the partisan takeover bill” and also voted no.
“It’s an unconstitutional takeover, it’s a hijacking of a role reserved to the states under the Constitution, so I believe it’s unconstitutional,” said Cornyn, a Texas Republican.
The For the People Act would expand voting access, create new federal ethics rules, limit gerrymandering, and limit the influence of money in politics. The bill would override any contradicting state law or regulation.
The bill passed the House by a 220-210 margin in March, but faces strong Republican opposition in the Senate. Democrats have to pass a 60-vote hurdle to overcome a Republican filibuster, an unlikely feat in a Senate divided 50-50.
When asked if there were any parts of the bill he supported, Cornyn said there are none.
Similarly, Cruz, a Texas Republican, mentioned no part of the bill he called the “Corrupt Politicians Act” he supports and instead criticized it for overriding states’ voting laws.
“It strikes down countless voter integrity provisions that have been adopted by states across this country. 36 states have voter ID provisions. This bill, the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act’, strikes down all of them,” Cruz said Tuesday.
“Thirty-one states prohibit ballot harvesting, a corrupt practice that has been an invitation to fraud. This bill strikes down all of those restrictions and mandates ballot harvesting nationally.”
Democrats see the bill as crucial to combating what they see as voter suppression in Republican states looking to make it more difficult to vote following the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.
In May, Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives prevented the GOP from passing a voting bill that would restrict voters’ access to the ballot box.
“Republicans claim they’re making it easier to vote and harder to cheat in an election. But in reality, they are making it harder to vote and easier to steal an election. And that’s why the Senate will vote on moving forward on critical voting rights legislation,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said in a tweet Tuesday.
The Senate voted 50-50 on a procedural vote for the bill on Tuesday, falling short of the 60 vote threshold to start debate. This effectively killed the bill unless the filibuster is removed. Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona Democrat, previously said they oppose getting rid of the filibuster.
This story was originally published June 22, 2021 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Texas Senator Ted Cruz on Democrats’ voting rights bill: ‘Hell, no’."