Humiliating defeat looms for Joe Biden on voting rights laws

His flagship spending plan has collapsed, now he faces a fresh rout at the hands of his own party on voting rights. Where on earth does the US President go from here?

President Biden was facing another humiliating defeat in Congress last night as his push to enact landmark voting rights reform teetered on the brink of collapse in the face of united Republican opposition and feuding among the Democrats.

The White House was still short of the votes needed to force through the Voting Rights Act, which it claims is vital to saving American democracy from Republican efforts to restrict voting rights and even overturn the results of future elections.

The showdown on the Senate floor appeared doomed to fail, however, with dissenting Democrats refusing to back a rule change that would allow Biden to pass the act without Republican support. After the collapse of his flagship Build Back Better spending plan last month, the president is heading for another crushing defeat at the hands of his own party, threatening disaster for the Democrats at the mid-term elections in November.

The Democrats had promised to force a Senate vote on Monday, Martin Luther King Day, but pushed it back when defeat seemed inevitable. With the Senate tied 50-50 and Republicans united against the Voting Rights Act, the Democrats have sought to override the arcane filibuster rule that requires 60 votes for most legislation to pass. That effort, however, has been blocked by the Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. The same two torpedoed the Build Back Better plan last month.

Biden will make a last-ditch appeal to salvage the Voting Rights Act at a press conference today, with frantic efforts continuing behind the scenes to force Manchin and Sinema into line.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader, opened the Senate debate yesterday by warning the two rebels that “the eyes of the nation will be watching”. He added: “The American people deserve to see their senators go on record on whether they will support these bills or oppose them. The public is entitled to know where each senator stands on an issue as sacrosanct as defending our democracy.”

After the collapse of his flagship Build Back Better spending plan last month, the president is heading for another crushing defeat at the hands of his own party.

Manchin and Sinema appear implacable, however.

Martin Luther King III, son of the late civil rights leader, compared them to moderate white politicians his father encountered during the civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s who claimed to support voting rights for black Americans but would not vote for them. “History will not remember them kindly,” King said.

The campaign was prompted by Republican efforts to restrict voting in several US states after claims by Donald Trump that the 2020 election was “stolen”. In 19 Republican-controlled states dozens of laws were passed that restrict access to the ballot and give state legislatures greater oversight in certifying election results. The changes will mostly affect black voters.

The Democrats argue that the new laws lay the groundwork for disputing and even overturning election results. Pro-Trump Republicans are running to become chief election officers in several states. Trump himself, still toying with a campaign to retake the White House in 2024, said recently that “sometimes the vote-counter is more important than the candidate”.

Biden changed his focus to voting rights after the collapse of his Build Back Better agenda before Christmas. The Democrats had hoped to use the anniversary of the January 6 riot last year — when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to halt certification of Biden’s victory — as a springboard to pass the two bills.

“The attack on our democracy is real,” Biden said in a speech marking Martin Luther King Day. “It’s no longer just about who gets to vote. It’s about who gets to count the vote, and whether your vote counts at all.”

Without the support of Manchin and Sinema, the campaign on voting rights has appeared doomed from the outset. Yet Biden and party leaders have felt compelled to try, despite the risk of further defeat and humiliation. With nominal control of both houses of Congress, failing even to attempt to pass legislation that Democratic leaders claim is essential for the survival of American democracy would represent an admission that Biden’s presidency has entered its lame-duck phase after just a year in office.

His approval ratings have slumped in recent weeks — as low as 33 per cent in one poll - as economic woes and the pandemic weigh on a weary public. Resurgent Republicans are increasingly confident of winning the handful of seats they need to take control of both houses, allowing them to block any significant legislation before the next presidential election in 2024.

Q&A

What is in the Voting Rights Act?

Two bills — Freedom to Vote and John Lewis Voting Rights — were drafted by the Democrats after the 2020 presidential election to challenge new restrictions relating to early voting and race issues in Republican-held states.

Why do they matter?

Since Donald Trump left office, still claiming the election was stolen, 19 Republican-held states have passed at least 33 laws that critics claim make it harder to vote and could be used to dispute results. The charges would overwhelmingly affect people of colour, most of whom broadly lean Democrat.

Where do the Republicans stand?

They are united against the bills, which cleared the Democrat-held House of Representatives last week, teeing up a showdown in the Senate, which is split 50-50. The voting package would need 60 votes to pass, requiring ten Republicans to switch sides.

That will not happen. The Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has denounced the bills as a “naked power grab” and has kept his party in lock-step against the plans.

What about the Democrats?

They had to be seen to act. The vast majority of them support the bills but President Biden is hamstrung by the deadlock in the Senate. With no hope of persuading the Republicans to back the bills, the White House has sought to override the filibuster, allowing the act to pass without any Republican votes, providing all 50 Democratic senators are on board.

Conservative Democrats have balked at that, however. The dissent has been led by Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — both Democratic senators in Republican-leaning states — who also torpedoed Biden’s flagship Build Back Better Act last month. Despite relentless pressure Manchin and Sinema show no signs of backing down. Unless they can be won over, Biden’s push on voting reform looks doomed.

The Times