Hoyer on Voting Rights: Giving Up is Not an Option

WASHINGTON, DC - Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) joined Joe Madison on Sirius XM radio this morning to discuss Democrats' efforts to protect voting rights, continue the fight to pass critical voting reforms in Congress, and more. Below is a link to the interview and excerpts of his remarks.

To listen to the interview, click here.

On Voting Rights

"Well, Joe, first of all, I want to point out to your listeners, and I know, you know this, we have 272 - now we have 273 - but 272 [Democratic] Members of Congress, 222 in the House and 50 in the Senate. It's important the listeners know that every one of those 50 Senators, every one of those 222 House Members voted for the voting rights bill. Every one of them. Now, as you know... no single Republican would vote for a bill that guaranteed people the right to vote, and make it easier for them to vote, facilitated them in voting, even if they could get off work by making weekends available and early voting available, etc., etc.. Not a single Republican voted for the voting rights bill in the United States Senate. And as a result, in the Senate - which you need 60 votes to pass something unless you can waive the filibuster - it didn't pass. And that's sad. But as I said on that clip that you just played: giving up is not an option. Because giving up would be giving up on democracy; giving up on the basic right of every American [who is] eligible to vote, to vote, and not only to be eligible to vote - but to have it made easier and easy to vote so that their voice can be heard."

"And so giving up is not an option. Every Democrat supports [it]. We're going to keep working towards figuring out how to get this passed and getting it passed as soon as possible. Obviously, there's been a lot of focus on the fact that we have two Democrats who don't want to eliminate the filibuster, which Joe, I think ought to be able to [be] eliminated. The filibuster is undemocratic. The filibuster rejects the [Senate's] ability to represent the American people. We know that the Senate is not a representative body. You know, 40 percent of the American people elect 75 percent of the Senate – think of that. So less than a majority adopt three quarters of the United States Senate. So it's not a representative body, and that's not going to change. But what ought to change is we ought not to allow a filibuster to stop legislation from being adopted that has majority support, as this bill does, in the United States Senate - 50 [Senators] plus the Vice President."

"… You know, if John Lewis had given up, if Martin Luther King had given up if any of the great leaders... gave up because of the opposition that they confronted on a daily, weekly, monthly basis we would not have made the progress we've had. The great legacy of those leaders that we have. Giving up is not an option. Voting rights are absolutely central to what America purports to be, what it wants to be, and what it should be…"

H.R. 1, the For The People Act and the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act

"Absolutely, [H.R. 1 addresses gerrymandering]...In H.R. 1, which we passed through the House not only in the last Congress, but again this Congress and sent it to the Senate - and it was in the bill that was considered on the Floor of the Senate - [H.R. 1] outlawed partisan gerrymandering, and we set up commissions to have fair redistricting, so that all the people would be represented..."

"You, your listeners need to understand what John Lewis did was try to restore the Voting Act to what it was in 1965, which required preclearance. [The Freedom to Vote Act: John R. Lewis Act] is [what] the [House] passed, it applies to every state. It was fair to every state so that if any state had a process that appeared on its face to preclude people from voting, then it would have to be precleared by the Justice Department, and I think that that's fair and unfortunately that didn't pass [the Senate] either. So now we have no preclearance, [and] what we see is…around the country, in 49 states, some over 400 [bills], according to the Brennan [Center], which oversees elections throughout the country, over 49 states have legislation pending, [and] 19 have passed legislation, which makes it more difficult to vote in America, which is obviously contrary to the entire basic premise of our country, which is that every person has the right to vote, every person votes. And that's the best way to make our decisions."

"...They'[ve] tried to eliminate, in one of the states, Sunday voting. You know, you have early voting because of Souls to The Polls… So that was obviously directly related to a program that primarily Black churches throughout America, not just in the South, but throughout America. We're urging people to go and vote for the person of their choice or the policy of their choice. Totally, absolutely designed to prevent minority voting."

On President Biden Nominating a Black Female Justice to the Supreme Court

"First of all, let me say this is no secret. [President Biden] said this in the campaign. He said this needs to be done. Over 250 years or 248 years of our Supreme Court [and] there's not been a single Black woman nominated for the court in over two centuries. And what Biden said during the campaign, he didn't hide this, he told the American people. By the way, this is like Ronald Reagan saying he was going to appoint a woman, [and] like, frankly, Donald Trump saying he was going to appoint a judge that was going to overturn Roe v. Wade. This is, you know, the Republicans are now wringing their hands that this is some revolutionary action. That's baloney. Joe Biden said this was not right. And if he got an opportunity or somebody to nominate somebody [to the] Supreme Court, he was going to nominate an African-American woman because there's never been that. The Supreme Court needs to be representative. Now, any Republican who thinks you can't find a totally, absolutely highly-qualified African-American woman to be on the bench, frankly, doesn't know reality and reeks of prejudice, in my view. But I think it was the right thing to do...It's the right thing to do and it will be good for the country and good for the [Supreme] Court."

On the Recent Bomb Threats Against Bowie State University and other HBCUs

"We're very proud of Bowie State, an outstanding educational institution. We see unfortunately rising racism, rising antisemitism, rising hate actions around the country, which are inconsistent with our values but are unfortunately ever-present with us. And we need to take every step we can to educate people on how despicable this is and how harmful it is to what America stands for: One Nation, indivisible…E Pluribus Unum: One out of many…This is not America. And very frankly, from the President on down, we need to condemn it…hate crimes [are] un-American."