Free Republic

Democrats' attempt to change Senate rules to pass the voting rights bill failed Wednesday night, with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) voting with Republicans.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said Thursday that she will not vote to weaken the Senate's 60-vote filibuster threshold, bucking her party leaders yet again and dealing a major blow to Democrats' election reform effort. The comments, which match Sinema's long-held stance on the filibuster, are effectively the final nail in the coffin of Democrats' longshot effort to pass two elections bills over unified Senate GOP opposition. "There's no need for me to restate my longstanding support for the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation. There's no need for me to restate its role in protecting our country from wild reversals of federal...

The Texas state Senate approved a sweeping election reform bill Tuesday night, one day after dozens of House Democrats fled the state to prevent the chamber from taking up the legislation. The state Senate approved the bill on an 18-4 party-line vote. Nine Senate Democrats had joined 51 of their House colleagues in hightailing it to Washington, DC, though this was not enough to deny the upper chamber a quorum. However, the legislation is now stalled due to the absence of a quorum in the House. Republicans say the measures in the bill — which include ending drive-thru and 24-hour...

Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed funding for the Texas state Legislature after Democrats in the state House blocked the Republican-backed election reform bill. This follows through with a threat he made at the end of May when Democrats blocked S.B. 7 by walking out of the regular legislative session, meaning the House did not have a quorum and therefore could not pass the bill. Among other changes, the bill would create new rules for mail-in voting and provide more access to poll watchers. "Texans don’t run from a legislative fight, and they don’t walk away from unfinished business," Abbott said in...

One of the downsides for liberal publications when they get a bit too comfortable with their audiences of a similar political persuasion is that they can accidentally let their guard down and reveal embarrassing truths. One such example could have been in Politico on Monday in which reporters Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine appeared to have inadvertently let the cat out of the bag in "Senate Dems agonize over voting rights strategy."