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Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock is fighting for voting rights legislation to address the voter suppression measures of state Republican governments.
First-year senators typically don’t make many waves. Senators from swing states also tend toward the circumspect, particularly when up for reelection. Black politicians who represent large numbers of White voters often shy away from issues related to race.
Georgia’s Raphael G. Warnock (D) is breaking all the rules. Warnock won by just two percentage points in January’s special election to replace the retired Johnny Isakson (R), and must win again in November 2022 to secure a full six-year term. But instead of playing it safe, Warnock has injected himself fully into the contentious fight over our voting laws, making passing national voting rights legislation a central cause of his first year in office.
Now that push is entering its final act. Warnock was among the Democrats most heavily involved in writing the trimmed-down voting rights and pro-democracy bill unveiled this week in an effort to get the support of Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.). The big question ahead is whether Manchin and all the other Senate Democrats will embrace changing the filibuster rules so the bill can pass.
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