More than 50 Democratic candidates for the House, including many in swing districts, are joining the party’s congressional leaders in pledging to make voting rights legislation their first priority should Democrats win control of the chamber next month.
“We — a coalition of 51 candidates running to represent districts stretching from coast to coast — are calling in one collective voice that on Day 1 of the 119th Congress, we must pass the Freedom to Vote Act and John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and send them to the president’s desk to be signed into law,” the 51 lawmakers wrote in a public letter released on Tuesday.
The letter’s signers include Democrats who are challenging incumbent Republicans in some of the nation’s most competitive races, including Kirsten Engel in Arizona’s Sixth Congressional District; Adam Gray in California’s 13th; Lanon Baccam in Iowa’s Third; and Laura Gillen in New York’s Fourth.
The letter was organized by Defend The Vote PAC, a political action committee that focuses on voting rights and supports Democratic candidates.
The pledge comes as the party is focusing on the issue of democracy in the homestretch of the presidential and congressional campaigns. Vice President Kamala Harris has been campaigning with former Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, who was a leader of the House Jan. 6 committee that investigated former President Donald J. Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
“I’m running against somebody who was at the Stop the Steal rally,” said Rebecca Cooke, a Democrat who is challenging Representative Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin, and signed the letter. “I think right now, voters are concerned about democracy. We need to elect people to Congress who are going to really work to uphold our pillars of democracy and not dismantle them.”
Mr. Van Orden has acknowledged attending the rally that preceded the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol, but he has said he left once it was clear the crowd had turned violent.
Democratic leaders are also pledging to make voting rights legislation their top priority should they retake the House. Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the No. 2 Democrat, told The Hill this week that a voting rights bill would earn the coveted spot of “H.R. 1” — the designation given to the first and highest-profile piece of legislation at the start of a new Congress — in a Democratic-controlled House.
In 2021, Democrats also made voting rights legislation their top priority, pushing it through the House. But the legislation was repeatedly blocked in the Senate, a fate that would almost certainly await it again.
The legislation at issue would have established nationwide standards for ballot access that aimed to nullify restrictions Republicans have imposed in states around the country following the 2020 elections. Among them are a minimum of 15 consecutive days of early voting and a requirement that all voters be able to request to vote by mail. The measure would also establish new automatic voter registration programs and make Election Day a national holiday.
Democrats would need to capture the presidency and both chambers of Congress to have any chance to enact the legislation. Even then, they would need to overcome the Senate’s filibuster rules, which effectively require 60 votes for any major legislation to move forward.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, has attempted to create a carve out to the filibuster rule to advance voting rights legislation, but has so far been unable to muster enough support even among Democrats to do so. He has said he would have a better chance in a new Senate, because two key senators in his caucus who opposed the filibuster change are leaving the chamber.
