US Democrats stockpile lawyers, money to fight Republican voting laws
Democrats are preparing to spend record sums on lawyers, advertising and other protect-the-vote efforts in a bid to fight Republican voting laws.
The move comes in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections as Democrats are hoping to stave off Republican efforts they believe will choke off access to the ballot box.
They are concerned that a slew of more restrictive voting laws Republican-controlled states adopted will keep Democrats from registering their votes.
Now, donors, big and small, are filling the Democratic party‘s coffers with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) taking in $157 million last year and adding $10 million more in January, according to Reuters.
Over half of Democrats' national funding is coming from people who are donating less than $200, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks political spending.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), responsible for holding the party's House of Representatives majority during the Nov. 8 election, will donate at least $10 million to voting rights litigation, according to a person familiar with the matter.
That eight-figure budget comes in addition to a $30 million commitment by the DNC for voter-registration and litigation efforts as well as $10 million from the Senate campaign.
The party’s effort includes both litigation to challenge laws like voter roll purges combined with targeted outreach on digital platforms to register new voters and counter misinformation on voting as well as an attempt to elect Democrats to often-overlooked election administration positions like secretaries of state.
"This is an all-hands-on-deck effort to ensure that every ballot is counted," said Representative Nikema Williams, a Democrat from Georgia spearheading the DCCC effort.
Nikema added that the investments were necessary to counter a "decades-long crusade" by Republicans to "suppress the vote."
Democrats and Republicans each spent nearly $120 million on legal fees during the 2020 showdown between President Joe Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump, the data showed.
In Texas, for instance, Republican lawmakers instituted more stringent voter ID requirements for people who vote by mail.
Since the beginning of 2021, 18 different GOP-led states have passed 30 different laws that would make it more difficult to vote.
Texas approved a controversial legislation in mid-July, last year, to restrict the absentee voting and forbid drive-through voting, which the Republicans believe were the Democrats’ trump card in the 2020 presidential elections.
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