In the Fight for Voting Rights, Where Are White Democrats? |
In the wake of Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court’s opinion over gerrymandering and redistricting of Congressional maps, a bevy of voices, overwhelmingly Black, have raised their opposition and protest to the high court’s limiting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Activists, civil rights organizations and even Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have cried foul at a decision that threatens to devastatingly dilute the voting power of the Black electorate. Yet, it appears that White Democrats in Congress—as well as leadership at the Democratic National Committee (DNC)—haven’t made it to the front lines of this fight, leaving matters almost exclusively to the voices and efforts of their colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and other civil rights leaders.
Prominent White Democrats have been noticeably quiet about the decision, as well as the real impact that has already begun with plans to redraw districts in Tennessee and Alabama.
And the absence of a real plan from Democrats during a vital midterm election year threatens to leave votes on the table from a demographic it desperately needs to secure widespread wins.
With its decision, SCOTUS did affirm that gerrymandering voting maps on the basis of race is illegal. However, the high court raised the bar for establishing that racial animus was the underlying motivation for redrawing maps. This has already led to both predictable and ridiculous scenes in state legislatures, like in Tennessee, where a........