House Democrats are rapidly pushing ahead on a new bill designed to prevent future election challenges. It carries the added benefit of helping them put Donald Trump back on the midterm ballot.
Lawmakers are voting Wednesday on a proposal to modernize the 135-year-old law that Trump backers tried to use to their advantage on Jan. 6. After weeks of testing a MAGA-focused message on the campaign trail and the airwaves — one that scorches Republicans for the roles some played in Trump’s failed attempts to claim the second term he lost — the vote gives Democrats a chance to back it up with action.
However, it’s far from clear whether the House version can prevail over a Senate alternative that’s incredibly similar and currently has the necessary GOP support to overcome a filibuster. Republicans in both chambers have panned the House bill, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s team is whipping against it, but Democrats are determined to plant their own election-reform flag ahead of November.
“If it weren’t for the MAGA movement, we wouldn’t even be talking about [changing the law],” said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), who leads the House Democrats’ campaign arm. “So it’s one more action we need to take to protect our democracy from the radical actions of the MAGA movement.”
It’s a sign that Democrats view the MAGA moniker, and the fallout from Trump supporters’ violent attack on the Capitol, as a potent path to persuade voters of the former president’s connection to this November’s crop of Republican candidates. While Democrats have struggled to counter GOP economic attacks, they’re hoping democracy protection can join abortion rights as a way to pump turnout in the fall.
Republicans, for their part, aren’t sweating the pressure from Democrats. They’re expected to largely oppose the election reform legislation, have openly whipped against it and view party-exiled Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-Wyo.) endorsement as a black mark on the bill.
Republican Study Committee Chair Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said he’s “always been open” to clarifying the 19th-century election law but he opposes the House bill and Cheney’s involvement means he takes it “a lot less seriously.”
“I take it for what it is, a political weapon to beat up on Donald Trump and not about preventing a Jan. 6 from ever happening again,” Banks said.
Some Republicans have said they would support the Senate’s version of the Electoral Count Act overhaul — which ultimately could include provisions of the House bill anyway once it goes through a markup next week.
“[With] the Senate version you’ve got Republicans and Democrats working together. I know Liz is a Republican, but the fact is they just foist it on us,” Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, a moderate Republican running in a Biden …read more
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/21/electoral-count-act-democrats-maga-trump-00057843